Anatomy of an Affair
by Jun-I
Summary: A ronin becomes fascinated with an androgynous samurai. Kam x female Kyuu. Ch 16: Hyogo finally confronts Kanbei over the murder of Nose Band Guy and Mono Eye Dude, but will the noble samurai's quest for revenge result in more insult than honor?
1. Bathroom Talk

**Rating: **T (for this chapter)  
**Pairings: **none (Kan/Kyuu later)  
**Warnings: **female Kyuuzou! Mention of homosexuality.  
**Genre: **General, Humor  
**Synopsis:** Hyogo and Kyuuzou have a strange conversation about the appeal of a woman in drag.

Having reached her early thirties, Kyuuzou no longer regarded herself as a young woman. Nor did Hyogo and Ayamaro, the only men in Kougakyo who knew her true gender, see her as a young woman. To them, Kyuuzou was just Kyuuzou: decorated Great War veteran and trustworthy bodyguard.

With her trim physique and smooth face, the female warrior could still pass for a man much younger than herself. This provided occasional amusement for Hyogo, who would snicker silently whenever they escorted Ayamaro through Jinjuku, the _nanshoku_ district of Iyashi no Sato. Invariably, a few of the homosexual men cruising the streets would cast desiring glances at the taut, lean figure of the samurai woman, not discerning that a female body was wrapped within the stiff fabric of the _yojimbo_'s long red coat.

Upon returning to the governor's palace after one of Ayamaro's discreet visits to the '_okama_ area', the two samurai stood guard together outside Ayamaro's luxurious ceramic-and-tile bathroom, which was practically the size of a small public bathhouse. The bespectacled bodyguard, tired of listening to the sound of Kougakyo's governor singing in the jacuzzi within, started making conversation with his dour colleague to pass the time.

"There are three kinds of people who would fall for you," the pale-skinned okama turned to Kyuuzou with a conspiratorial wink. "Women who love male youths, men who love male youths, and men who have great passion for women."

Kyuuzou raised her eyebrows but made no reply. She could see why Hyogo would mention the first two categories, but as for the third - 'men who have great passion for women' - what had that got to do with her? Kyuuzou had never been regarded as pretty, even as a young woman. Even her father who adored her had to admit that his beloved daughter was plain. The red samurai recalled how her mother complained that her face was perpetually set in a shrewish expression. Mother was always trying to school young Kyuuzou to be more 'pleasant', 'gentle' and 'sociable'. But the more the parent tried, the more the child rebelled by studying the arts of fighting and killing to the exclusion of all else. No man could love a woman like her. That was what she had been told, directly or indirecly, through the years.

Having observed the face of the seemingly emotionless Kyuuzou for a couple of seconds, Hyogo's blackened lips stretched into an impossibly broad grin.

"Do you want to know why 'men who have great passion for women' would desire someone like you?" The drag queen was now immensely pleased that he knew something that Kyuuzou did not know.

Kyuuzou gave no response, did not even shrug her slim shoulders. Hyogo continued talking in what Kyuuzou mentally labeled his authoritative 'know-it-all' voice. "Men who are the ultimate connoisseurs of women have spent much time observing and admiring the characteristics of women's bodies. They alone among all men would be able to see through your impeccable disguise. And you would fascinate at least some of them."

Within the bathroom, Ayamaro's splashing and singing had reached a crescendo. Kyuuzou snorted. "Connoisseurs of women? You mean men like our lord's son?"

Hyogo laughed lightly. "Between you and me, my esteemed colleague, our lord's son is a mere boy who does not see beyond boobs and bottoms. He is only a clueless toy collector."

"Then which man do you regard as a true 'connoisseur of women'?" Kyuuzou stared straight ahead. She did not even turn her head to look at the pale queen.

"I haven't met any in recent years," The black-haired bodyguard admitted. "I, on the other hand, am a fine connoisseur of men..." He went on to describe in detail all the interesting male human specimens that he cruised during their Jinjuku tour with Ayamaro.

By now Kyuuzou was bored by the sound of Hyogo's voice. She began to wonder why Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude liked hanging out with Hyogo outside work time. Perhaps they shared the same interests. Kyuuzou tuned out the drag queen's exuberant talk and focused on the voice of their lord singing in the bathroom instead.

* * *

Note: The 3 categories of people who like women in drag is borrowed from 12th Night


	2. Pity Party

**Rating: **PG  
**Pairings: **None (Kan/Kyuu later)  
**Synopsis: **Ukyo brings news of two formidable dark samurai leading a criminal gang.

**Warning:** Slight AU in details, including Kyuuzou's gender.

There were few things that Kyuuzou found more annoying to listen to than man-crazy Hyogo's run-on monologues. But one of those few things came her way soon enough - the sound of a spoiled brat whining.

"It must be my luck," the warrior woman said sarcastically under her breath when Ukyo paid her a visit one week after her strange conversation with Hyogo. Kyuuzou had long noticed that Ayamaro's son typically never even bothered to look at his father's servants, unless the young master had a favor to ask of the underlings.

A little after 6am, Ukyo walked into the bodyguard's exercise chamber without announcing his arrival. Kyuuzou was practicing her sword forms there as she did every morning. The woman immediately knew something unusual must have happened since the last time she saw Ukyo. The prince was usually a late riser.

"What could have caused that slacker to drag himself out of bed at this 'unthinkable' hour?" The blonde smirked inwardly.

It was only yesterday noon when Kyuuzou and Hyogo, in the company of Ayamaro, witnessed one of Young Master's tantrums. Ukyo had actually sent a servant to summon Ayamaro to the prince's quarters, claiming an urgent matter awaited. Kyuuzou always silently shook her head at how the Governor acquiesced to the boy's wishes. Shouldn't the father be calling the son to him instead of vice versa? But it was not her place to tell Ayamaro how to parent his child, so the silent samurai remained quiet.

When Ayamaro and his bodyguards came to Ukyo, they found the white-faced and trembling prince rambling on and on about something Kyuuzou couldn't make head or tail of. All that she could gather was that someone had tried to stop Ukyo from doing something unspecified, and that someone was a mecha samurai, and Ukyo was upset.

"Big deal," she thought. "Just suck it in and deal with it on your own!"

Ayamaro too did not have the time to listen to Ukyo's hysterics. The Imperial Envoy was currently visiting Kougakyo and the Governor had to entertain him. So the obese blond brushed his son off, saying, "Just kill off whoever is giving you trouble, all right?"

"That's a great idea!" Ukyo immediately snatched a pistol off the gun rack mounted wall and shot dead one of the mecha samurai in his own entourage.

Ayamaro and the two yojimbo did not bother to stay longer to witness more of the prince's madness. The lord had better things to do. And Kyuuzou thought no more of the matter until now.

"Perhaps it is because his father did not spend 'quality time' with him yesterday that Young Master is now looking for a more convenient target who would politely listen to his whining." Kyuuzou silently concluded, observing Ukyo making his way towards the plushest chair in the room. "But people tend to wrongly assume that just because I don't talk a lot, I enjoy listening to any audio input that comes my way."

With a distressed groan, the young prince made an exaggerated gesture of swooning into the chair. Kyuuzou ignored him and continued with her pre-breakfast training routine. By protocol, a servant of Ayamaro owed at least a bow and a greeting to her lord's heir. But the crimson samurai only intended to extend courtesy as far as it was extended to her. If Ukyo had acknowledged her, she would reciprocate with a bow of the appropriate degree, but since the 19-year-old did not bother to address her before lapsing into a mock faint, she paid no more attention to him than she would to a fly buzzing around. What was the point of greeting an 'unconscious' man anyway?

Kyuuzou focused once more on her iaijutsu drills. The female samurai preferred not to over-exert herself before her breakfast, as overworking her body on an empty stomach would burn muscle, not build muscle. She reserved her brief morning workouts for precision training. The more strenuous regimens of acrobatic leaping, stamina-building drills and strengthening exercises would come later in the day.

Kyuuzou inhaled as her hands closed around her sword hilts and exhaled as she drew them with the speed of lightning. The twin blades flowed instantaneously into their first cuts, slicing cleanly through two glass bottles set atop wooden poles. A swordswoman who angled her blades any less precisely or moved any less quickly would have shattered or toppled the bottles instead. Even someone untrained in the way of the sword could see that the pale warrior had accomplished no mean feat.

"Impressive! Impressive!" Ukyo suddenly recovered from his swoon to clap his hands. Kyuuzou wondered what kind of request the prince would bother her with; it must be of some importance if it made him invest time and energy in flattering an underling.

It wasn't long before Kyuuzou had her answer. After a few more sentences of insincere praise and undisguised flattery, the dark-haired youth launched into a whining session about his unfortunate adventures from the day before: He had met a lost peasant girl named Kirara on the street and hospitably invited her back to the palace, but on the way home, he was stalked and attacked by samurai! An ugly large 9-foot-tall mecha and a snot-nosed teenager snatched the young maiden from his protection!

"So, that was what he was whining on and on about yesterday," the woman mentally commented. "My guess is the brat probably tried to kidnap the girl and her friends caught up to him."

Kyuuzou had by now stopped her exercise routine; she stood calmly still on the training room floor, her head turned slightly towards Ukyo's chair. But that was about the only indication that she was actually listening to her governor's son. The woman's impassive red eyes looked through Ukyo as if he wasn't there.

"I barely escaped with my life!" The young prince moaned, clutching his head dramatically. Kyuuzou's expression remained stonily unsympathetic. Ukyo knew he had to try a different tack.

"Worried about the fate of my new friend Kirara and the public safety of Kougakyo's residents, I had Tessai send Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude to apprehend the samurai right after I spoke with my father yesterday. Our men had instructions to rescue the damsel in distress." The young man with long blue hair tried to put on a look of pained concern. "But when your conscientious colleagues tried to negotiate with those savage samurai, they were hacked to pieces! The criminals still have Kirara with them. Will you help me save her please? And we must take revenge for your colleagues, ne? Ne?"

Kyuuzou sheathed her swords in one clean motion and folded her arms. Ukyo's stories were never the simple truth.

"You mean the teenaged boy and the 9 foot tall mecha killed Mono-Eye Dude and Nose Band Guy?" The woman's voice was devoid of emotion.

"No, those two were in the ronin den but their skills were nowhere near the level of Tessai's men's." Ukyo gesticulated nervously. "It wasn't them who killed Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude. It was two of their friends. Hook saw the culprits - two highly-skilled middle-aged samurai, both tall and dark. One has silver hair, the other has long dark hair. The dark-haired one is the leader of the band! We think no one can handle them besides you or Hyogo!"

"So, what wounds did Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude die from?" Ukyo felt Kyuuzou's piercing gaze on him.

"I don't know exactly how they met their end..." The white-faced prince gave the woman a placating smile. "Would you care to interview Hook? He was following Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude, so he saw the fight from a distance..."

"So much for pretending that you care enough about Tessai's men to desire vengeance," Kyuuzou silently concluded. But she spoke calmly and coldly. "I wish to examine the dead bodies. Hook can accompany me to the morgue."


	3. Manipulation

**Chapter rating: **K  
**Pairings: **None (Kan/female Kyuu later)  
**Characters: **Kyuzo, Tessai, Ukyo, Hook

Under the harsh florescent lighting within Kougakyo's 7th Level City Morgue, Ukyo held his nose daintily while nervously pacing up and down the white-washed hallway in the company of his solidly stocky bodyguard.

"When are they going to be done?" The young merchant prince asked impatiently. "This place is giving me the creeps!"

"You really didn't have to come here, young master," Tessai's voice held the subtlest hint of weary longsuffering. "You could have waited in the palace for Hook and Kyuuzou to bring you a report."

"But I want my answer NOW..." A drawn-out whine disturbed the silence that permeated the sterile building.

Tessai secretly envied the majority of occupants of this building who, in the sleep of death, no longer had their eardrums subjected to Ukyo's annoyingly deliberate nasal tone. Fortunately, respite came for the short-haired blond at that very moment.

The wide double doors at the end of the hallway swung open and Kyuuzou emerged, followed by the balding Hook. "Well?" Ukyo asked eagerly as the two blonds strode up to him.

"Judging from their wounds, both Mono-Eye Dude and Nose-Band Guy were most likely finished off with a defanging move followed by a fatal strike," Kyuuzou pronounced her evaluation rather coolly. "The space between the grooves etched into the links of Mono-Eye Dude's arms seem to indicate that they had been twisted around a single edged blade about the width of a standard katana. The width and shape of the stab wound in his mono-eye lens corroborates this. It appears that Mono-Eye Dude was incapacitated before his opponent terminated him with a thrust through the eye. The blade passed through his skull. According to the autopsy, the cause of death was brain hemorrhage. I see no reason to disagree with the forensic doctor's evaluation."

"Yes, yes, Young Master, it is as Kyuuzou-dono says," Hook chipped in obsequiously as he bowed towards Ukyo. "I saw the tall dark samurai with silver hair stab Mono-Eye Dude in the eye. His weapon was a katana."

Ukyo appeared bored at this 'technical' dialog. He didn't give a hoot about how Mono-Eye Dude met his end. All he wanted was for Kyuuzou to agree to get rid of those troublesome samurai and bring Kirara to him.

"Well?" The young lord asked again, this time in a more impatient tone.

If Kyuuzou received the hint, she ignored it. "Nose Band Guy, I believe, was first defanged by a reverse slash that removed the barrel of his arm gun, and then killed when the blade on its return path cut him diagonally across the thoracic cavity. The angle of the cuts seems to indicate that his opponent was a right-hander." The woman's low, cool voice echoed softly in unadorned but clean corridor.

Ukyo rolled his eyes. "Who cares about this worthless information?" He wondered. "Did Kyuuzou come here just to play 'forensic detective'?" Tessai, however, seemed to be nodding away with keen interest at Kyuuzou's evaluation.

"Yes, yes, it is indeed as Kyuuzou-dono says," Hook piped up once more. "The dark-haired ronin wielded an uchigatana in his right hand." 

"Uchigatana?" Kyuuzou kept her slight surprise out of her voice. The force of the sword strike that went into Nose Band Guy's wounds led her to guess that the murder weapon was a large heavy nodachi typically wielded with both hands. 

"Well, as I said, the murderer is a big tall fellow," the blond with the ever-expanding bald spot turned towards Ayamaro's bodyguard. "So maybe an uchigatana forged for him would have to be used like a nodachi when placed in your hands."

No sooner than those words had left his lips did Hook realize his mistake. Kyuuzou's proud face had turned whiter with quiet anger; her impassive expression took on an additional layer of iciness. Hook blanched. He had the bad feeling that he should probably watch his back around the crimson-clad blonde from now on. 

Taking in the situation with his sly red eyes, Ukyo smirked. Things were taking a slight turn for the better, as far as his plans were concerned.

Kyuuzou gave Hook a long, cold stare. Yes, she would show him and that "big fellow" that Hook seemed so impressed with that size was NOT everything, that muscle strength alone did not determine the outcome of a duel. She was fast, she was precise, she knew how to channel the power of ki to make up for her lack of brute strength relative to men and mecha. Maybe she was not as physically strong as that long-haired warrior, but she bet that she was faster and her iaijutsu was deadlier. Many big men and bigger mecha had died under her swords during the war.

Now Hook was desperately trying to distract his audience by chattering on, dispelling the deathly silence of the morgue corridor by describing details of yesterday's fight. "... And both those cursed samurai seemed to have the uncanny ability to dodge Nose Band Guy's flying skewers and Mono Eye Dude's extendable arms. They were extremely quick for big men, and in fact for humans. Would you believe, the long-haired one dissected Nose Band Guy's first volley with the draw of his sword! I've never seen iaijutsu being used against ammunition from mechanized weapons in such a manner..."

At this, prideful Kyuuzou felt her resentment burn even deeper like a festering sore. Now she wanted to defeat that nameless ronin, if only just to prove to Ukyo's foolish servant that he haven't yet seen the best in the world of swordfighters.

Ukyo's slick voice interrupted Hook's ramblings. "Well, Kyuuzou-dono, my ignorant servant here has not seen much beyond the boundaries of Kougakyo. To an experienced Great War veteran like you, those filthy ronin are small fry. I'm sure that they pose absolutely no challenge for a warrior of your caliber."

"I am not at liberty to act without the governor's permission," Kyuuzou replied with cool aloofness.

"I'm sure that my lord and father will allow you to lend your assistance to a brief mission that only you and you alone can accomplish." Young Master flashed a dazzling white smile with nearly convincing sincerity. Though in truth, he did not believe that Kyuuzou was the only fighter in the Governor's employ who could exterminate those pesky ronin. Tessai was a possible choice, but the conniving prince would rather put his father's bodyguard in harm's way than risk losing his own bodyguard. Hyogo was also fit for that purpose. Since the black-haired samurai was probably easier to manipulate emotionally than Kyuuzou, Ukyo had considered him as the #1 choice. But the prince hadn't seen the flamboyant bodyguard since Ukyo returned to the palace last afternoon. That was hardly surprising, considering that Hyogo was on duty guarding Ayamaro who, together with his cabinet officials, had been holed up all afternoon and all night in the Executive Wing, busily reviewing data and conducting 'research' in response to issues raised by the visiting Imperial Envoy. Kougakyo's governor was trying to put together with a coherent report before his morning meeting with the envoy. Hyogo's unavailability left Ukyo with only one choice - Kyuuzou.

Now that this 'chess piece' had been moved into place with some unintended manipulation from the helpful Hook, all that remained for the prince to do was to secure his father's approval. Ukyo smiled. Kirara seemed well within his grasp.  
**  
**


	4. Ruined Plans

**Chapter rating: **K+  
**Pairings: **None (Kan/female Kyuu later)  
**Characters: **Kyuzo, Hyogo, Tessai, Ukyo, Ayamaro

It was barely 11am in the morning and Hyogo was already tired. He tried to keep his eyes open as he sat beside Ayamaro and the Imperial Envoy in a private meeting chamber within the Executive Wing of the Governor's Palace. If Ayamaro worked all night, his bodyguard worked all night. The yojimbo even ended up helping his lord type a report when the governor's office proved a little short-handed during early morning crunch time. This was way more exhausting than his usual duties. "Most people don't think that brain work burns many calories, but it really does!" Hyogo swallowed a yawn, trying to keep a dignified appearance in front of the well-rested envoy.

The long-haired man could hardly wait for this meeting to end, after which Ayamaro would return to his personal quarters for a recess and Hyogo could get a much needed break.

"My first priority is to take a shower and wash my glorious black hair with Tea Tree Oil Conditioning Shampoo. Then I must catch up with my beauty sleep," Hyogo said to himself, "after which I shall call Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude to see if they are up for a night at the all-male revue at the Half-Eaten Peach Theater in Iyashi no Sato. I haven't seen those two since the day before yesterday. Maybe we can hit one of the nice teahouses on Persimmon Avenue before the performance. I can do with some monkey-picked premium tea. The rose-petal tea may be nice too... though too much tea might mean that I have to take a toilet break during the show. That would be slightly inconvenient..."

The femininely elegant bodyguard's leisure-themed mental meanderings were interrupted by the muffled sound of footsteps in the hallway outside.

"It's Ukyo and Kyuuzou," Hyogo pronounced calmly even before he heard a knock on the door. A few seconds later, Ukyo popped his head into the room without ceremony. Crimson-clad Kyuuzou remained outside the room, kneeling sedately on the reed floormat.

"Impressive," the narrow-eyed Imperial Envoy sipped his cup of high grade matcha while shooting Hyogo an amused sidelong glance. "You knew who they were without having seeing them."

Ayamaro, however, was less amused by the interruption.

"What is the meaning of this?" He snapped at his son. "Can't you see that I'm in a meeting with His Excellency the Imperial Envoy?"

"Father, I need to borrow Kyuuzou!" A visibly agitated Ukyo did not care to disguise his usual 'I want it, and I want it now' tone in front of a visiting dignitary. The young prince then launched into an impassioned speech about rooting out the 'rebel' ronin immediately.

"No, I need Kyuuzou with me," the Governor tried to sound firm. "You can't have the use of my bodyguards at will."

The portly blond was previously planning to release the black-haired bodyguard after the meeting and have Kyuuzou start her shift.

But Hyogo knew by experience that it would only be a matter of minutes before Ukyo's petulance bent the rotund governor to his cunning will.

Ayamaro was not a cruel employer; he perceived that his sleep-deprived bodyguard needed a rest. As long as the governor stayed within the well-guarded palace, it was not imperative for him to be accompanied by Hyogo or Kyuuzou at all times. Lower-ranking palace guardsmen sometimes substituted for Ayamaro's regular bodyguards when Hyogo or Kyuuzou were not available.

"Hyogo, you are dismissed," The sparsely bearded governor said right after they stepped out of the meeting room. Gratefully, the okama yojimbo bowed to Gozen-sama.

Ayamaro turned and clapped his hands at a couple of the eight guards posted at the exit of the Executive Wing. Without a word, these two white-uniformed officers fell into step next to Ayamaro and the Imperial Envoy. The lord and his guest continued their walk towards the Guest Wing of the palace, leaving Hyogo, Kyuuzou and Ukyo behind.

Despite Ayamaro's good intentions in granting Hyogo some respite, it turned out that the tired yojimbo would not be able to give himself a break. A familiar figure stood waiting outside the Executive Wing, past the two rows of palace guards. It was Tessai, bodyguard to the prince. Since the scope of Tessai's duties did not justify giving him access to the Executive Wing, he had to wait for Young Master outside.

When Tessai came forward to meet Ukyo, he inadvertently made eye contact with Hyogo, who was standing in front of the prince. At that moment, the dark-haired bodyguard saw a strange look of vague regret in the beady eyes of the chunky no-nonsense samurai. A nameless emotion, something almost like pity or sorrow, lay within those brown orbs. Hyogo instinctively knew that look was partly meant for him.

"Is anything the matter?" The black-lipped queen asked curtly.

"Perhaps you already know this, but Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude were killed yesterday during an operation in the Artisans' Level of the city." Tessai announced in a quietly undramatic voice. Without waiting for Hyogo's response, he stepped past Ayamaro's bodyguard and took his place beside the Young Master.


	5. Rivalry

**Synopsis:** The first signs of tension appear in Hyogo and Kyuzo's working relationship  
**Rating:** K+

**Warning:** Politically incorrect opinions expressed by characters.

**Characters:** Hyogo, Kyuzo, Tessai, Hook, Gorobei, Rikichi

**Note:**

- Tessai and Gorobei mistakenly think Kyuuzou is an effeminate man, not a woman.

- Opinions of characters don't necessarily represent author's opinions.

--

Kyuuzou had not yet left on her mission and she was already irritated. After receiving the ronin-elimination mandate from Ayamaro, she requested a report on yesterday's incidents from the Magistrate's Office. According to the official report, the peasant woman Kirara had allegedly been recruiting ronin around the city for the purpose of fighting bandits. Kirara currently had four samurai under her direction. This painted a radically different picture from what Ukyo had told Kyuuzou; the prince previously claimed Kirara was kidnapped by the samurai. Kyuuzou was not at all surprised that Ayamaro's son had lied to her, but still, it was annoying.

Then Hyogo had been sniping at her left and right all the way from the Executive Wing back to the servants' quarters. He was apparently upset at her for not coming to check on him and Ayamaro last night. Considering that he had been working overtime, she could have taken her shift earlier and given him a break. For example, accompanying Gozen-sama to the morning meeting with the Envoy could have been her job, or so Hyogo implied. What an inconsiderate coworker she was! How insensitive!

The woman kept silent and tried to ignore Hyogo's insinuations. But she couldn't keep the scowl from creeping onto her face. It was not until this morning that Kyuuzou learnt that Hyogo had worked all of last night; Ayamaro had not sent for her to replace her colleague. And she was not due to start her shift until after lunch today. The crimson samurai didn't intentionally neglect Hyogo. So why was her colleague having this petty little fit? And why couldn't Hyogo voice his dissatisfaction in private and at a more appropriate time, instead of taking shots at her in the presence of a third party, Tessai, just before she was to leave on a difficult mission?

"Hyogo is probably pissed because Governor Ayamaro gave me this assignment." Kyuuzou silently concluded. "The diva always has to be in the most 'glorious' fights and can't stand to share the limelight with any other."

Famed through Kougakyo as the "star samurai" recruited into Ayamaro service after the war, Hyogo had the reputation of being an undefeated swordsman. Yet Kougakyo's Number 1 Queen still constantly craved opportunities to further spread his 'legend' and collect more accolades. Kyuuzou's colleague was never one to be shy about asking for the most challenging missions. But the woman chose not to vie with the other yojimbo for 'glory', preferring to work quietly in the background. From experience, she had learnt that Hyogo was fairly decent to get along with as long as no other 'ladies' stole his thunder. And Kyuuzou preferred to avoid unnecessary conflict at work.

But this time, it was different. Ukyo offered her the challenge of defeating the strange ronin; she accepted it, and no one was taking it from her.

Tessai, the witness to this mini cold war between Ayamaro's two bodyguards, gave a soundless sigh. Looking at Hyogo and Kyuuzou - two 'men' that Tessai considered 'honorary' females - Tessai was glad that he was single and did not have to deal with this sort of cattiness at home.

"Honestly, I cannot understand why some men like Ukyo want more than one wife. Listening to two or more competing women quarrelling with each other day in and day out would drive me insane," the stocky blond thought while walking the two 'ladies' to the servants' dormitory.

Kyuuzou went to her quarters to prepare for her excursion while the two men shared a smoke in the smoking hut located outside the smoke-free dormitory.

Having spent a few minutes in her rooms refreshing herself, Kyuuzou went back out to meet Hyogo and Tessai. The moment she stepped past the threshold of the employees' dormitory, she sensed someone's eyes on her. It was an intent gaze, not a casual glance. The source of this energy seemed to be coming from the other side of the canyon. Instinctively turning her line of sight in the direction of this unseen watcher, the warrior woman thought she saw an unusual spot of dark green amidst the dull gray metal piping lining the exterior of the distant Otokoyama Brewery. But she was much too far away to discern any detail.

Kyuuzou would have spent more time scrutinizing that suspicious spot on the far side of the canyon if Hook had not rushed up to her there and then.

"We just received a report from our informant at the Flying Feet Courier Service on 6th Street in the Industrial Sector!" Hook gave a slight bow to the female samurai. "He said that the older peasant girl and the young samurai boy were there just some minutes before, at 1:15pm. If you hurry now, you might still catch them in the Market District."

The balding blond then launched into detailed descriptions of the four samurai who engaged Tessai's men the day before. But Kyuuzou was only truly interested in one of them – the dark haired middle-aged man who split Nose Band Guy's skewers in half with his sword.

--

After scouting Kougakyo's Industrial Sector, Gorobei found a good spot from which he could survey the Governor's Palace. The Palace and other residential sectors were built into the east canyon wall, separate from the industrial and commercial city levels that stacked up against the west wall of Kougakyo Canyon.

Gorobei, with Rikichi in tow, set up his surveillance post amidst the ventilation pipes of the Otokoyama Brewery located opposite the roof level of the Governor's Palace. The former commando brought out his military-issue high-powered binoculars, a souvenir from the war.

"O Honorable Samurai, shouldn't we be looking for more samurai?" Gorobei heard Rikichi's tentative voice behind him.

"According to Masamune-dono, the men who pursued us were from Ayamaro's security forces." Gorobei systematically scanned each palace level, moving his eyes from right to left, top to bottom. "I think it could help our future plans if we understand our enemy a little better… but what do you think?"

The samurai turned to the peasant.

From his precarious perch on the wide metal pipe running along the canyon side of the brewery, Rikichi answered nervously. "What? Me? What do I know?"

"Just as I thought," The tall warrior remarked wryly, turning his attention back to Ayamaro's multistory-complex, his eyes picking up where they last left off – a wood and concrete compound whose exterior was noticeably less lavish than the rest of the palace. That, he guessed, was the servants' quarters. At that moment, he saw a solitary red figure step out of the servant's quarters into the common courtyard. Gorobei's binoculars zoomed in on the androgynous figure.

"Without a doubt," exclaimed the silver-haired man, "That is a samurai!"

The red-clad blond was carrying double swords, but that was not what prompted Gorobei to pronounce his firm assessment. What caused the Great War veteran to realize that this new arrival was samurai, and not just any samurai, was the fact that the slender figure had paused and looked up in Gorobei's direction. At least 300 yards lay between Gorobei and the target of his observation, but the intent in the crimson samurai's gaze told Gorobei that this target knew that he was being watched and could pinpoint where the watcher was. In Gorobei's experience, only highly trained warriors or masters of meditation could have such an elevated level of awareness.

A tall thin blond in a black trench coat ran up to the red warrior. After exchanging some words, the two blonds walked up to another building - a round hut-like structure with a chimney and a shiny dark roof. The red clad warrior knocked on the door. In response, two other figures – a stocky blond in an orange jacket, and a black-haired androgyne in a cream overcoat - emerged from the hut. Together, the four began walking briskly towards the main exit of the palace – the gate that opened to the bridge joining the palace to the west side of the canyon.

"Rikichi, we have to bring news to Kanbei," Gorobei announced. "Possible enemy movement detected."

--

Hyogo was still fuming inside while the four fighters quickly made their way through the palace's maze-like paths.

"How come Kyuuzou is the first pick for this mission?" The dark-haired yojimbo asked himself. "She isn't even friends with Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude. Look at her! So nonchalant and unperturbed. She probably doesn't even care that they died! And she's the one who gets to fight those who killed them? If anything, that fight should be mine!"

Objectively, Hyogo could understand Ayamaro's point of view. To Gozen-sama, eliminating the ronin gang was about removing a potential security threat – peasants hiring samurai – and not about avenging personal friends. It did not make a difference to the governor whether Hyogo or Kyuuzou accomplished that goal. Nevertheless, Ayamaro's decision gnawed at Hyogo, and for another reason in addition to his desire to avenge his companions. The pale queen's pride was no less than that of Kyuuzou's, and perhaps even greater.

"By my sheer fabulousless, Heaven has ordained me to duel and defeat any strong challengers who appear in the domain of Kougakyo, and indeed under heaven. How can plain-Jane Kyuuzou, who simply does not have it in her to be as fabulous as me, try to usurp my place as the Shining Queen of Samurai? In a 'right' world, I alone among the 'ladies' should be praised for my beauty and skill, and she should stay in her place as the quiet sidekick." Hyogo could not stop these obsessive thoughts from running through his mind, no matter how hard he tried.

Tessai's eyes darted nervously between Hyogo and Kyuuzou. The two 'ladies' were now walking side by side in absolute silence, but the stocky man felt that he could almost hear their thoughts. Tessai believed that Hyogo might feel better if the black-haired bodyguard was explicitly told that Ukyo's choice of Kyuuzou for the mission was purely incidental – Hyogo was at work and Kyuuzou happened to be off-duty when the prince showed up – but if Tessai told Hyogo the truth now, Kyuuzou would be offended. So the muscular blond kept his thoughts to himself and racked his brains for another solution that could preserve the egos of both haughty warriors. Being less conscientious, Hook simply smirked in silence while walking behind Kyuuzou and Hyogo – the balding blond loved watching catfights brew.

"Look here," Tessai suggested awkwardly when the four reached the ornate gold and crimson gate of Ayamaro's palace. "Maybe we can ALL go to the Industrial Sector together - the four of us - and finish off those ronin. That would be safer and faster. Then I will take the girl back to Ukyo." The short-haired samurai thought this would be an acceptable compromise to the two 'ladies'.

"I don't recall our governor giving such an order." Hyogo's voice was cold. "Kyuuzou can handle this alone."

The woman did not linger to listen to further discussion between the men. Kyuuzou resolutely walked through of the gate, stepping onto the wide bridge leading to the barren, treeless Industrial Sector of the City.

"Kyuuzou-dono!" Tessai started forward. But Hyogo stuck an arm out, blocking his way. Ukyo's bodyguard protested. "But Hyogo-dono, are you sure this is the best way to go about it?"

The silent Hyogo pursed his lips sourly, his cold eyes following the lone crimson figure making her way over the gray concrete bridge. "Fine! If you wants all the 'glory' to yourself, you can have it! I only hope that you do as good a job avenging my friends as I would have done myself," he thought.


	6. The Challenger

Vocab – _ki_: air, ether, energy aura, breath (in this context understood as an individual's internal energy, which can be channeled through breathing)

--

Having reached the Industrial Sector, Kyuuzou quickly made her way down 6th Street although she doubted if the peasant woman and the samurai boy were still there. Most likely they had moved on during the time it took for the informant's report to reach Ayamaro's palace. But having no other leads to go on, the woman warrior decided to try her luck on 6th Street. Keeping her senses tuned to any unexpected phenomena, she strolled down 6th Street – the main commercial street of the Industrial Sector. At the end of every block, intersecting staircases led up to 5th Street and down to 7th Street. The slender samurai did not make much of an effort to conceal herself; her bright red dress did not stand out amidst the gaudy store signs advertising goods at "factory direct" prices.

After walking 8 blocks, Kyuuzou's sharp ears picked up an outraged voice drifting up from the street below.

"Rude kids! How can I accept such a ridiculous mission?" A man was shouting.

The samurai woman quickly made her way down the nearest flight of stairs linking the two streets, emerging amidst the cluttered storefronts of 7th Street. She could have crossed the distance between the upper and lower streets in a single leap, but at this point, the governor's bodyguard preferred not to draw attention to herself.

Instinctively honing in on the source of the noise, Kyuuzou spotted a rough-looking samurai scolding a pair of teenagers in the middle of the street. The two young people were a short girl with long dark brown hair and a taller but younger boy with dark green hair in a pony tail – they matched the descriptions given by Hook.

The burly man spun on his heel and left the teens turning towards each other with chagrin written on their faces. Kyuuzou was too far away to hear what they were saying, but she guessed that the girl must have said some encouraging words, for the boy's face lit up again, and the two young people once again started walking down the street.

Quietly, Kyuuzou followed them at a distance. She saw the boy and the girl approach yet another ronin, a square-jawed man who also rejected their request in loud and arrogant tones. "Disrespectful peasant! How dare you ask this of me!"

Again, the young people wore looks of disappointment as the samurai stormed off. The girl looked towards the boy but now the boy was glancing around nervously. Kyuuzou stood a hundred feet away, casually concealed in the mingling crowd. From the dark-haired boy's haphazard visual search, Kyuuzou knew the boy had likely sensed her watchful gaze but remained unaware of her location.

"A samurai," she concluded. "Though one of rather rudimentary training."

The girl once against addressed the boy. His worried expression melted into reassuring gentleness when he turned to answer her. Together they continued walking north on 7th Street. Moving with the stealth of a cat, Kyuuzou followed them at a discreet distance.

--

It was 1:50pm. Komachi and Kanbei stood waiting at the intersection of 8th Street and Stair 242. Much earlier in the day, Kirara's samurai-seeking team had split into pairs and gone their separate ways. Kirara and Katsushiro said they would try recruiting samurai in the area between 4th Street and 7th Street while Gorobei and Rikichi headed up to 1st Street to do some recon work. Kanbei, with Komachi in tow, traversed 14th Street, 15th Street and 16th Street looking for ronin to interview. The area between 8th Street and 13th Street was left out of today's plan – these blocks had less foot traffic as they were occupied mostly by warehouses.

The peasants and samurai set their rendezvous point at 8th Street and Stair 242 – everyone would gather there at 2pm to exchange progress reports. Shimada had no good news to report. In fact, the former commander had not even bothered to interview any of the ronin he passed on the street – he did not sense from them the strong _ki_ that marked the kind of warrior that he sought. In his first meeting with Gorobei, Kanbei detected the _bushi_'s aura emanating from the man even before Katayama came into sight - it was a kind of energy that took years to cultivate through regular meditation and intense martial arts training. Unfortunately, samurai of Gorobei's caliber were not too common. Kanbei would have settled for someone with 50 percent of Gorobei's _ki_ level, but he did not even find anyone who came close to the mark today.

"Perhaps Kirara and Katsushiro had better luck," Kanbei thought while he and Komachi stood in the shade of a flimsy-looking storehouse constructed out of sheet metal. "I doubt if they can discern a warrior's power through their sixth sense, but if they find a few willing parties, that's a good start. We talk about discriminating on the basis of 'quality' once we have a few candidates…"

"Look!" Komachi called out, stepping away from Kanbei into the sunlight. "O-ne-sama and Katsu-kun are back!"

Kanbei looked up. The young woman and the boy had just arrived at the top of the stairs linking 7th Street and 8th Street. As Shimada stepped out of the shade to meet them, Kirara and Katsushiro trotted down the long flight of steps.

"We couldn't find any samurai, Sensei!" Katsushiro reported, running up to Shimada.

That was when Shimada sensed a strong _ki_ in the vicinity. It seemed to be emanating from the top of the stairs behind Kirara and Katsushiro.

"No samurai?" The dark man said cryptically to Katsushiro. "Is that so…"

Kanbei raised his eyes towards the 7th Street stair landing and called out to the unseen presence, "You there, aren't you samurai?"

Katsushiro and Kirara turned in surprise to see a red-clad figure slowly emerge from the 242nd block of 7th Street. It was a blond carrying twin swords in a peculiar S-shaped scabbard. For a moment, this strange samurai stood still at the stair landing above, gazing down on them with a detached coldness that could be read as severity or contempt.

"So… this fellow was probably trailing us on 7th Street – that explains why I kept having the weird feeling of being watched…" Katsushiro felt increasingly nervous. The atmosphere prickled with a sense of danger.

"You've been followed, Katsushiro," Kanbei stepped in front of the two young people in a defensive gesture.

Boldly leaping off 7th Street, the stranger landed soundlessly on the stone pavement of 8th Street as if it was a 2-foot-drop rather than a steep 5 meter drop. Kanbei observed how that lithe red-clad body curved and flexed midair in preparation for absorbing the impact of that death-defying leap.

As the new arrival rose to full height from a crouched landing position, Kanbei got his first clear look at the stranger's face: slanted red eyes glinting with merciless flintiness; sharp chin projecting a certain petty meanness; stiff, down-turned lips hinting at an unforgiving nature. Shimada was no expert in the art of reading human faces, but he could say with fair certainty that this was not a handsome face. Still, the odd combination of a less-than-beautiful countenance and regally graceful figure only served to intrigue Kanbei further.

"A woman?" Shimada wondered, observing the smoothness of the jaw line extending from the scarlet samurai's pointed, hairless chin . The stranger started walking with a slow, measured pace, circling Kanbei. To the old soldier, it was only too obvious what this younger warrior was here to do – the new arrival was a challenger sizing him up for a duel. His own feet joined this slow circular path, cautiously pacing around the other warrior.

Kanbei's keen brown eyes traveled up and down the proud straight figure prowling around him. His would-be opponent was slim, with no visible hint of breasts; his/her shoulders were slightly broader than average for a woman, but still narrow for a man. If this stranger was indeed male, he had exceptionally slender wrists and hands – the dark ronin could not help noticing a certain feminine elegance in the stranger's long, tapered fingers.

"I am Shimada Kanbei," the long-haired samurai said courteously, "It would be an honor to learn your name."

"Kyuuzou," an unnaturally deep voice answered him.

"A man's name and a man's voice," Kanbei quietly took in the new information, but remained unconvinced as to whether the speaker was really male. The keen Shimada observed that while the stranger lacked the wide curvaceous hips typical of females, his/her body had a relatively long trunk – a trait more common to women than to men, who tended to have longer legs compared to a woman of equal height. But there were certainly many exceptions to the 'norm' – the physical variation within the female population, or the male population for that matter, was definitely greater than the physical variation between generalized male and female specimens.

However, this peculiar stranger was not going to give the white-clad ronin more time to stare at him/her and contemplate his/her gender. The silent challenger stopped pacing all of a sudden. His/her hands shifted to her/his sword hilts as s/he faced Kanbei.

"Draw!" The blond samurai's voice cut through the heavy stillness of the afternoon air. In one smooth quick motion, s/he drew her/his twin swords. This crimson-robed warrior held his/her arms wide apart as her/his torso thrust forward proudly in an open stance.

In response, Kanbei's gloved hand deftly slipped his uchigatana out of its scabbard.

"A very bold fighter," Shimada observed the stranger's posture. "S/he is either over-confident or very skilled to enter a match with an unguarded stance, presenting the enemy with the widest surface area for attack. I would bet on the latter though. S/he is probably baiting me."

It turned out that Kanbei's cautiousness was warranted. The experienced Great War veteran felt a strong surge of hostile _ki_ emanating from his opponent as the challenger rushed towards him. In a split second, Kanbei mentally measured this samurai's energy against what he remembered of Gorobei's battle aura – the red warrior's _ki_ exceeded Gorobei's in intensity; it also had a colder, darker quality – like a woman's _yin_ energy compared with a man's _yang_ energy.

Kanbei summoned the power of his own breath as he charged into battle, holding his scabbard in his left hand and his sword in his right. In most other duels, the experienced swordsman did not bother with using his scabbard as an additional weapon, but this time, he knew he had to take no chances.


	7. Deadlock

_**Disclaimer:** Don't take anything in this fic as any sort of martial arts guide ;-) I'm merely referencing the canon fight scene frame by frame. If something doesn't quite make sense, blame it on the 'movie fighting' XD_

--

Kyuuzou wasted no time attacking the man who was rushing forward to meet her charge. But it turned out her opponent had a penchant for the unexpected. Countering her upper strike to his head with his own blade, he simultaneously blocked her lower cut to his abdomen with his scabbard.

She whose swords had cut through dozens of giant mecha during the war was stopped in her destructive path by a mere scabbard made for a human warrior! Kyuuzou could not suppress a small gasp of surprise.

"It's his _ki_!" She realized almost immediately. "He's channeling his internal energy into his weapons, giving them power and strength that they would not have in their natural state."

The woman warrior's momentary pause gave her opponent a chance to counterattack. Sliding his scabbard off her blade, he turned his defensive move into an offensive maneuver by pushing back into her. The red clad samurai spun away from the direction of his thrust, causing her opponent's scabbard to lunge into empty space. But the man was cunning too; he had taken the opportunity to raise his sword into a wing block, redirecting the force of her upper blade without using much of his own energy.

Swinging around with doubled slashes, Kyuuzou rapidly followed up with a scissor strike. Both times, her quarry dodged her attacks without attempting to strike at her or even parry. Undeterred, Kyuuzou lunged at the man once more.

--

"Reckless! How utterly reckless!" Kanbei thought, observing how his opponent practically led the attack with his/her head as s/he dove at him with an inward scissor strike. Leaping into the air to avoid those shining swishing twin blades, the middle-aged man demonstrated remarkable athleticism for one his age. His lightning-fast red-clad foe swung his/her arms back out, advancing on him with an outward scissor strike even before he had began his descent. But for some reason, his/her strike went wide below his feet, leaving her head totally open as Kanbei landed in a defensive stance.

But Kanbei did not attempt to take the opening. When his opponent jabbed at him, he obliquely blocked the blade with his scabbard and then spun around, swinging his sword back at Kyuuzou. Ayamaro's bodyguard checked the uchigatana's downward path with a scissor block but it was obvious from the strained posture of those slender red-clad shoulders that Kyuuzou was feeling the pressure of Kanbei's raw physical power.

--

The pale-haired warrior had the feeling that her opponent was, until this moment, humoring her aggressive advances, but had now decided that he had enough and was about to reverse the pressure of the fight. She knew she should end this duel quickly. Slipping her left sword out of the scissor block while keeping his sword at bay with her right blade, she thought to strike Kanbei's neck with her free left blade. But she did not notice until it was too late that her cunning adversary had at the same time reached around her head with the scabbard in his left hand.

Trying to bring her left arm forward, Kyuuzou realized with a grimace that her left sword's intended path was obstructed by the scabbard laid in a diagonal across her neck and left shoulder. It would be easy enough to change her blade's path to a lower one aimed for the waist, but Ayamaro's bodyguard was painfully aware of Kanbei's solid touch on her neck and left shoulder. If her skilled foe targeted his pressure to a nerve point, he could instantly immobilize her left arm.

Only her right sword was left in a potentially offensive position, and that sword was now currently occupied with blocking Kanbei's blade. For a moment, the two struggled for control as Kyuuzou tried to maneuver her stance into one in which the energy flow would be in her favor. Her opponent, of course, matched her footwork and did not yield her any advantage.

The woman warrior decided that offense was the best defense. Clashing metal against metal, she pushed her blade back against Kanbei's, giving up its defensive position for a strike to her foe's neck. It was a risky gamble. By abandoning her defense for offense, she was simultaneously opening herself to her enemy's attack. Since neither samurai had the advantage of position, the victor would be the one who moved faster.

His blade touched her pale throat at the very moment her sword grazed his neck.

--

Through a seemingly endless sequence of transfers between narrow streets and steep staircases, Gorobei and Rikichi hurriedly made their way down towards the Industrial Sector's 8th Street where Kirara's team had agreed to rendezvous and exchange reports at 2pm.

"Deadly challengers might be headed our way!" Gorobei's tone was urgent. "It is imperative that Kanbei knows of this!"

But when the duo got to 6th Street, they saw Komachi sprint up Stair 242 from 7th Street, her short stubby legs moving as quickly as they could.

"Ah! A weird samurai is attacking Kanbei on 8th Street!" The small child shouted when she set eyes on the two men. "I was going up to 5th Street to get Kikuchiyo, but since you guys are here, go do something!"

Together, the three ran down the staircase leading to 7th Street. A crowd of curious onlookers had already gathered at the 7th Street stair landing, gesticulating at the duelists facing off on 8th Street below.

When Gorobei and his companions reached the platform overlooking 8th street, the sight they saw stopped them in their tracks. Kanbei and the crimson challenger were apparently stuck in a deadlock, each holding a blade to the throat of the other.

"Kanbei-dono!" Katayama exclaimed. At that moment, it seemed to the him that Ayamaro's henchman had turned out to be a swordsman equal to his esteemed leader.

"How did that fellow get here so quickly?" Rikichi wondered out loud. He and Gorobei had wasted no time in hurrying back from the Otokoyama Brewery opposite Ayamaro's palace.

Gorobei was disappointed at their late arrival but not entirely surprised that the red samurai reached Kanbei ahead of them. Ayamaro's enforcer was probably far more familiar with the streets of Kougakyo. After all, Rikichi had been here for less than a week, and Gorobei himself only recently came to Kougakyo as an itinerant performer.

But even so, Gorobei believed that a better acquaintance with the map of Kougakyo was not the only factor accounting for the red clad warrior's superior traveling speed. It was clear that both Kanbei and his opponent were on a level far above that of common samurai. He could see a small ring of dust clouds rising around the battle zone below, raised by the swirling _ki_ released by the two dueling warriors.

"How will this duel end?" Katayama was more than a little concerned but the seasoned samurai knew better than to intervene.

--

They were caught in an impasse. Each held the other's life at the edge of a sword. Shimada felt warm blood dribbling down his own neck even while he saw the crimson fluid ooze from the cut on his opponent's slender neck. In that strange zone between life and death, all sensations seemed to be magnified. Kanbei, watching the sweat drops form on Kyuuzou's forehead, was keenly aware of the bead of sweat slowly making its way down his own face.

He could see Kyuuzou's jaw tighten in an expression of near-savage defiance, like a cornered beast ready to die fighting. But his/her pouted lips almost contradicted his/her otherwise intense countenance. At that moment, Kyuuzou reminded Kanbei of a spoiled child annoyed at not getting what s/he wanted.

Staring at that angry, unhandsome face framed by coarse, unruly yellow hair, Kanbei found himself almost aroused by the proximity of his defiant opponent despite the latter's lack of beauty. And on seeing the blond samurai's face so closely for the first time, Shimada could not help noticing the faint hint of age lines on that pale face. This strange samurai was certainly not a youth. 'He' was at least in 'his' 30s. But Shimada also saw that Kyuuzou's smooth chin did not appear to have known the touch of a shaving knife.

He could never remember what came first. The sudden realization that his opponent was definitely a woman, or his impulsive declaration, "I'm in love!"

But he decided it did not matter which came first. He fell in love with the beauty of that death-defying leap down the 40 foot staircase between 7th Street and 8th Street. He fell in love with how her body bent gracefully to absorb the impact of the landing. He fell in love with the deftness with which she shifted her grasp from a reverse grip into a forward grip. He would have felt the same even if she had been a man.


	8. The Invitation

**Disclaimer:** Don't take anything in this fic as any sort of martial arts guide ;-) While some of the opinions expressed by characters are borrowed from observations of real life sparring matches, either seen in person or filtered through the commentary of martial arts professionals, I make no claim to expertise in any of the matters described in my fanfics ^_^

--

Her face frozen in a tight-lipped scowl, Kyuuzou glared at her opponent with unblinking red eyes, pressing her sword against his skin while remaining keenly conscious of the pressure of his blade against her own pale neck. Though the haughty warrior had, at this moment, no idea how she was going to break the impasse, she decided she would not be the one to yield.

Her opponent surprised her, suddenly leaning in closer as if to cut his neck even more deeply on her keen blade. But in a split millisecond, the quick Kyuuzou noticed that cunning Kanbei was not actually leaning directly into her blade; his forward motion had a subtle rotation that served to turn him away from her sword. Before she could adjust the position of her weapon to match his move, he opened his mouth.

"I'm in love!"

Kyuuzou could not believe her ears. The warrior woman blinked, her cold, unmoving, unnerving red stare broken by the half-leering expression on Kanbei's face. To her own surprise, Kyuuzou felt the color rush to her cheeks.

The man took advantage of the momentary flicker in her concentration to force her blade away from his neck with a deft rotation of his wrist. Sparks flew between their two swords; metal strained against metal. In the same moment, her bold adversary stepped in towards her right flank, closing the distance between them while holding her gaze with a stare that was too intense and too personal for the woman's comfort.

Quick to react, the female samurai threw her opponent two parting slashes while spinning into a graceful side somersault to put a bearable distance between herself and the man. Kanbei, launching his tall frame into an evasive roll, managed to avoid the twin lightning of Kyuuzou's anger.

Nimbly unwinding her lean frame out of her midair flip, the red-clad warrior landed lightly a few meters away from Kanbei, scornfully appraising the older man's much less graceful recovery from his roll.

"Of course I'm superior to him," she coolly reassured herself. But for a reason she could not explain, she still felt her cheeks burn with outrage. Was he leering at her when he said what he said earlier?!! "I'm in love!" Kanbei's words were ringing in Kyuuzou's head. The woman seethed. What could he mean by that?

"… with your skills, that is." Kanbei, scrambling to his feet, addressed her as if he had read her thoughts.

"He's toying with me!" Kyuuzou gave an audible hiss, expelling the air from her lungs in one forceful exhalation. She felt mocked, insulted and oddly enough, inexplicably disappointed.

"For some reason, I'm seeking highly skilled samurai," the older warrior continued.

"Is it over the matter of the Nobuseri?" The woman answered in the rough, masculine voice she had trained herself to use.

"Since you already know about it, there is no need for me to explain further. Will you join us?"

There was no hint of pleading in the man's voice. The ronin propositioned her in matter-of-fact, businesslike tone, as if he expected her acquiescence.

"I refuse!" Haughty Kyuuzou shouted. She charged at the tall man, her sword leading the way.

Launching herself into the air with strong, lean legs, the woman sought to bring her sword down on Kanbei's head. But he checked her right blade's descent with his sword and her left with his scabbard. For a moment, the red warrior was suspended mid-air, her entire body weight held up by the strength of her rival's arms.

Kyuuzou, shocked at the unexpected power of this mere flesh-and-blood samurai, felt a rush of alarm at having underestimated her opponent. Swinging her knees up in front of her, she kicked him hard, launching herself off the solidness of his chest to somersault away from him.

The impact of Kyuuzou's assault sent Kanbei flying backwards, crashing into a nearby storage shed. The metal poles stacked in the crude, open-walled shed clattered to the ground around the fallen old ronin.

Amidst this confusion, Kyuuzou saw her chance. She started forward, intending to finish her opponent before he had the chance to recover.

But Kanbei was surprisingly quick in turning a bad situation to his advantage. Before Kyuuzou had taken two steps towards him, she found herself dodging a metal pole that Kanbei had flung at her. The angry woman was undeterred, neatly slashing her way through the barrage of flying metal poles that her opponent sent her way until she chased right up to him.

The old ronin, nimble for his age, vaulted away from his attacker, propelling himself onto the beam of the storage shed with one of the metal poles. Looking up, Kyuuzou sought him once more, but the man cut off her path, sweeping the metal rod towards her.

"He's toying with me! Mocking me!" Her lips curved into a silent snarl as she dodged his attack. "Fine, if you want to play, I can play too."

Leaping up, she slashed, not at her opponent, but at the supports of the building. One of Kyuuzou's swords cleanly cleaved a lower beam in two, while her other sword brought down one of the pillars of the building.

The severed beam that Kanbei was standing on could no longer hold his weight. Kyuuzou smirked to see the man struggle to keep his balance while the whole storage shed collapsed to the ground, but her joy did not last for long.

Ayamaro's bodyguard had expected that Kanbei would be incapacitated or at least disoriented by the fall, upon which she could finish her assigned duty speedily. But now she couldn't see him at all. There was one thing she had not counted on - the falling shed had raised a huge cloud of dust. She could not see beyond 5 feet in front of her. Quickly, the warrior woman focused her energy on her senses of sound and touch, hoping to detect the change in air pressure or the sound of a footstep that would warn of her enemy's approach.

After a few moments, she finally sensed his movement on her left, but he was already much closer than she would have liked. "Why couldn't I sense him earlier?" she chided herself, barely having enough time to block his sword. In the low visibility of the dust cloud, their blades clashed once, twice. Then she felt his hand on hers.

The man's grip was strong, but not forceful; firm, but not tight. Kyuuzou could have pulled away from Kanbei, and put sufficient distance between them for her to strike at him again. But somehow, she did not. There was something strangely calming, oddly disarming in his warm, solid touch, something intoxicating about how close he stood next to her.

For a moment, she was still. He spoke, loud enough for the onlookers to hear, and presumably more for their benefit than hers.

"I can't defeat you, but before you kill me, there is something I have to finish no matter what."

From the stair landing above, Gorobei, Rikichi and Komachi overheard this strange confession.

"Wow, a samurai who is Shimada Kanbei's better in skill?" The farmer thought. "I never thought I'd ever meet one! Kougakyo certainly holds many wonders!"

However, the experienced Gorobei did not quite share Rikichi's perspective. A skilled swordsman himself, Katayama perceived things that were lost on the untrained eye. There were many factors that affected a duelist's success. Agility and physical flexibility were only part of the picture. Katayama had seen many duels end when a flashy move was cut short by a simple, direct counterattack; an acrobatic fighter could be easily brought down by a less agile opponent who had better mastery of timing and distancing. And from what he had seen of the two duelists so far, Gorobei believed there was a good possibility that this duel, had it continued, might have ended in Kanbei's favor.

"But now, Kanbei has shifted his battleground to the psychological front, playing on the pride and ego of Ayamaro's enforcer to produce a desired behavior," Katayama surmised.

As if to confirm Gorobei's theory, Kanbei gave his red-clad opponent a placating, ingratiating smile. ""If you'd excuse me, please let me go."

In response to Kanbei's words, Kyuuzou stared back at him, her pale lips slightly parted in an expression of haughty, derisive amusement. But she showed no sign of further aggression.

Kanbei had apparently calmed this deadly crimson viper. Ayamaro's enforcer seemed willing to be restrained by Kanbei, at least for the moment.

"Our leader has charmed the snake, or so it seems," Gorobei watched with keen interest.

Shimada slowly released Kyuuzou, his fingers lingering at the back of her hand, sliding over her wrist in a near caress before lifting from her skin reluctantly.

But the moment his fingers left her, the strange spell that Shimada had woven over the red warrior was broken. Gorobei saw a strange expression of outrage and humiliation cross the androgynous samurai's face when Kanbei stepped away.

Kyuuzou brought her teeth together in a snarl, fixing her malicious stare on Kanbei's back. Shimada could sense her murderous intent, but he addressed her without even looking back. "Are you called Kyuuzou?"

He sounded as if he doubted if that was her true name. Yes, she was once called by another name – a woman's name – but that name had long been forgotten and thrown away. Kyuuzou was the name she used during the war, for it was a common practice among women warriors from her tribe to introduce themselves using a masculine alias – sending the message to male comrades and enemies alike that they expected to be treated as men; no more and no less.

Kyuuzou began to feel uncomfortable. Although the white clad warrior was not looking at her, she felt that he could see things that were hidden from others. Kanbei continued. "You'll have to wait until I destroy the Nobuseri before we fight again. Please wait for me until then."

There was something in his manner that displeased Kyuuzou. This Shimada fellow spoke with the gentleness of a man speaking to a woman, not with the sternness and propriety of one warrior addressing another.

Her cold red eyes bore into his turned back. What a fool he was, to take her so lightly, to turn his back on a vicious enemy. Or was he counting on a warrior's 'honor' to hold her blade back? The old fool! To trust the morals of a stranger. Kyuuzou raised her sword, just to see if her opponent could sense the malicious aura of one with an intent to kill. He did, for the older samurai added, "... or would you strike me down right now?"

Gorobei and Rikichi held their breath as the strange red warrior raised one of the twin blades higher, as if in preparation to strike Kanbei. "I hope this is what I think it is," Katayama said to himself, "a teasing game of playacting. I don't think this scarlet warrior would find any challenge in killing a passive Shimada."

But the game did not reach its natural conclusion.

"Danger! Kanbei!" Gorobei heard a ear-splitting yell behind him. It was Kikuchiyo coming down the stairs after clearing up the damage in the Artisan's Quarter. The robot, on seeing the danger to Kanbei, had drawn his great sword in one big flourish.

"Wait!" Gorobei called out to the robot, but Kikuchiyo had already leapt off the stair landing, jumping right into the standoff below.

The woman spun deftly around, striking the intruding mecha's oversized weapon out of his hand with her left blade. Kikuchiyo, losing his balance, slid and crashed to the pole-strewn ground.

Kyuuzou followed the attacker's trajectory with her right blade, preparing sever the mecha at the waist, but Kanbei, like a big white shadow, had covered her every move. Reaching forward, he knocked the sword out of the woman's hand.

The slender blade clattered gracelessly to the ground. If the female samurai was annoyed or humiliated, she did not show it. With regal coolness, she tapped the fallen sword with her boot heel, deftly catching the hilt in her hand as it flipped upwards.

With the same composure, she sheathed her swords and walked away from Kanbei at a pace that was neither tardy nor hurried.

"I've lost interest in this game." The tall ronin was left with these words, spoken in a voice that was indifferent, almost dismissive.

--

Everyone in the crowd was staring at her as she calmly made her way up the stairs to 7th Street. But of all those pair of eyes fixed on her back, only one pair had the power to perturb her. Kyuuzou could feel Kanbei's burning gaze more intensely than anyone else's stare. She need not look back at him to sense those dark, smoldering eyes on her. Was he caressing her with his eyes even as she put more distance between them with each step she took? This thought simultaneously incensed and excited her.

"That rude ronin! How dare he look at me that way?!!" Kyuuzou's jaw tightened in a hard, unyielding line, but the woman's anger was directed at herself as much as it was at Kanbei. She was angry at herself for having allowed this cunning, impudent stranger to disturb her composure and bring the color to her cheeks. Kyuuzou could not recall anyone, male or female, among all the samurai she trained with or fought against, who affected her the way Kanbei did, sending shivers up and down her spine with merely a touch and a gaze.

Was her odd reaction to him due only to his unexpectedly strong battle skills? Kyuuzou did not think so. Not one of her many skilled senpai, those seniors who defeated her in practice duels when she was a young warrior-in-training, ever possessed the power to annoy her the way this man did. And not only did Kanbei disturb the stillness of her core, he did so with such annoying casualness.

Kyuuzou's irritation mounted with every thought while she made her way through the streets of Kougakyo.

--

"Wow, is that samurai even better than Kanbei-sama?!!" Rikichi recovered his speech long moments after the red warrior had passed out of sight.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Gorobei smiled wryly. "He is very good, that's certain. He is faster and more acrobatic than Kanbei, that's obvious. His _ki_ power might be equal to Kanbei's, or close. But will he win the next duel? That, I don't think is certain."

"Eh?" The peasant turned to Gorobei in surprise. "Those gravity-defying leaps! Those midair somersaults! Those beautiful, dramatic swings of the sword! If those are not the marks of a great fighter, then what is?"

"Those are the marks of a decent acrobat or a good film stuntman/woman," The former commando laughed. "Those beautiful, wide, dramatic swings of the sword, leaving the torso exposed, and that graceful, dramatic pose struck by sticking the head and neck forward – those would have gotten you and even me killed if we had tried it in a real fight. What saved that warrior's head from getting lopped off by Kanbei's sword was his well-honed reflexes and the speed of his dashing attack. And I suspect, one other thing saved Ayamaro's agent – Kanbei does not really want to kill him."

"Huh?" Rikichi could only understand part of what Gorobei was saying. The samurai looked at his friend's puzzled face and wondered if it was worthwhile trying to explain things further. Rikichi's incomplete comprehension was understandable. Most untrained people or rudimentary martial artists, dazzled by the flashy acrobatics, would have considered Kyuuzou the superior fighter.

Gorobei, himself a natural showman who loved a good show, had been greatly impressed by Kyuuzou's skill and physical dexterity. The red warrior's dazzling performance against Kanbei was undoubtedly the result of years of intense training. But Katayama knew when to put on a show and when not to. While he appreciated the skill of other street performers and had empathy for fellow war veterans who use their combat skills creatively to fill their stomachs in peacetime, Gorobei had little praise for samurai who displayed their skill merely to attract the admiring gaze and compliments of others. At heart, the itinerant artiste was a practical man.

However, Gorobei did not think that Kyuuzou was putting on a show or basking in self-admiration while swinging his sword, at least not deliberately. From what Katayama observed, the slender fighter's philosophy was "the best defense is offense." It was as if Kyuuzou knew his own weakness – a relatively undeveloped defensive game – and tried to compensate for his looser defenses with his speed and agility.

Compared to the average samurai, the crimson warrior's defensive strategies were certainly not weak. But Gorobei could say with fair certainty that Kanbei's seamless defensive methods were a whole level higher than his opponent's.

Kyuuzou's main strategy in the duel with Kanbei was to pressure his opponent with a blazingly fast series of attacks, with the intent of forcing an opening. The average samurai, forced to react faster than his instincts could process the next move, would make a mistake in his defense and thereby doom himself. But this time, Kyuuzou was dealing with someone who had an exceptionally tight defense. Gorobei had seen the look on Kyuuzou's face during the duel, it was an expression of surprised frustration on the face of someone not used to losing.


	9. Hyogo's Glee

**Synopsis: **Kanbei behaves strangely after his encounter with the mysterious lady in red. Meanwhile Hyogo's good intentions in giving Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude a grand funeral are under-appreciated by Tessai. Is this the beginning of greater discord among Ayamaro's retainers?

**Notes:**

In the original Japanese, when Kyuuzou was leaving after the duel, Kanbei literally said, "In the state of wanting!" which was translated to "I want him!" (at least in the DVD version I have), but it could just as easily be translated to "I want her!" _Disclaimer:_ _I'm by no means an expert in the language. Someone better informed can correct any misunderstanding._

--

"I want her!" Kanbei exclaimed in a low voice. Although Kyuuzou's slender red figure had faded from view, Shimada was still gazing absently up the long flight of stairs leading to 7th Street. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, threatening to grow wider.

Katsushiro and Kirara ran up to him, interrupting his private thoughts.

"Sensei!" The boy was calling. With some effort, Kanbei pulled his face back into a neutral expression before the mirth bubbling up inside his heart could erupt into an uncharacteristically silly grin.

"Kanbei-sama, are you all right?" Kirara's liquid dark eyes peered up at the handsome dark man, but Kanbei did not quite notice the worry and concern in her voice.

Turning to the youngsters, Shimada replied, "I'm fine."

"But your wound…" Kirara persisted.

"It's just a scratch," Kanbei seemed distant. Then he cast his eyes about 8th Street, now covered with fallen metal poles and the remains of the shed.

"It looks as if I have some work to do here," Shimada smiled slightly.

The two young people's faces fell. How long would it take to clean up this mess? They needed to spend all the time they could recruiting samurai. But Kanbei started picking up some of the scattered metal rods and stacking them against the street wall.

Kikuchiyo, having recovered from his fall and dusted himself off, proceeded to lecture the long-haired veteran. "Leave it alone, Kanbei! If that red dress fellow started the fight, he should clean up the mess!"

Kanbei did not respond. In a sense, Kikuchiyo was right, but the owner of the shed might not quite see things the same way. Besides, Kanbei was the one who started throwing the poles around. Now the debris and metal poles were obstructing the street. The old ronin thought it might be wiser to choose the course of action that would result in fewer public complaints against their persons or activities. Things were complicated enough with the shady side of the municipal government targeting their movements.

Even if he had none of these practical considerations, Shimada was presently in a pleasant mood, something that had not come upon him for years. Feeling exceptionally obliging, the white clad samurai was more than happy to clear the mess that Kyuuzou made.

Gorobei, Komachi and Rikichi had by now made their way down the long flight of gray concrete stairs to 8th Street.

"With a few more hands to help, this shouldn't take long at all," Rikichi picked up a couple of poles.

"One problem though," Gorobei rubbed his chin, taking a long, deliberate look at the broken shed before making eye contact with Komachi, then with Kikuchiyo. "Where are we going to put the goods?"

The robot snorted. "That's why I say we should just leave this mess and go! The owner can bill that red samurai for the damage!"

"You make a good point," Gorobei pondered, his pale brown eyes looking innocently at the sky. "But it takes two to duel, and the owner might hold Kanbei liable for damages too… unless we figure out how to put the shed back together… and none of us have the ability and strength to do that…"

"Kikuchiyo does!" Komachi, her little hand raised high, waved enthusiastically at Gorobei, as if she was volunteering her own labor and not the labor of another. "Kikuchiyo did such an awesome job fixing the damage in the Artisan's Quarter! He took only a day to straighten out the floors and secure the loose pillars! And all by himself!"

"Wow! Really?" Gorobei sounded impressed. "That's humanly impossible!"

Kikuchiyo could not help beaming at the samurai's compliment.

"But Kiku is more than human! " Komachi grinned up at Kikuchiyo . The robot was by now embarrassed by all this praise. If he could still blush, he would have done so. Out of habit, he scratched his head, although he had no nerves in his metal scalp to sense the touch of his own fingers.

"Ah well… if you say so…" The 9 foot tall mecha marched up to the fallen shed and began straightening the pieces of bent metal with his large, mighty hands.

Gorobei hid a smile, but threw a nod and a wink at Komachi once Kiku's back was turned.

Following Kanbei's lead, Katayama also began to remove the scattered poles blocking the roadway. Kirara and Katsushiro, seeing that everyone else was hard at work, finally joined the cleanup effort, sorting through the rubble for parts that Kikuchiyo could use to put the shack back together.

As Rikichi had predicted, the daunting task of clearing 8th Street went rather quickly once the whole team put their hearts and minds to it. But Kirara's and Katsushiro's initial reservations were not baseless. After the cleanup and repair work was completed, Kanbei's team was quite weary. And evening was descending. The band had little choice but to end their samurai search for the day.

On the way back to Masamune's workshop, Katayama updated Shimada on the findings of his earlier reconnaissance trip to Ayamaro's palace.

"So Kyuuzou is indeed an agent of Ayamaro…" Kanbei pondered. The knowledge both heartened Shimada and disheartened him. He was glad that he now knew a little more about who the strange warrior was and where she possibly lived, but he also saw the extreme unlikelihood of the Governor's enforcer turning her back on her duties to join a group that Ayamaro now apparently regarded as a threat.

--

After Kyuuzou left the palace to carry out her mission, Hook took leave of Hyogo and Tessai, saying that he had to return to Ukyo. Tessai knew it was more than likely that Ukyo had already instructed the visor-wearing blond to secretly survey the outcome of Kyuuzou's attack on the ronin band.

Putting his sour mood aside, Hyogo turned to Tessai, "Have you made arrangements for the bodies of Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude?"

"I managed to contact Nose Band Guy's distant uncle in Kougakyo," Tessai replied, "He says Nose Band Guy has an old mother living in Bunka Province. She is not healthy enough to make the long trip here, but his relatives will claim the body from the morgue and make sure it is returned to her for a proper funeral."

"Yes, he mentioned his mother to me a few times." Hyogo nodded. "I'll arrange to have a generous sum of cash sent to her out of my own largess."

He paused, waiting for Tessai to praise him for his noble kindness towards the presumably helpless old woman, to which compliment Hyogo was planning to respond, "Of course! You know that's just the kind of person I am."

But Tessai was cluelessly quiet. Hyogo had no choice but to continue speaking. "Still, it would be good if we could hold a memorial service for him in the palace too… What about Mono-Eye Dude?"

Tessai frowned slightly. "I was about to ask you if you know any of his relatives. He did not provide any emergency contact information when he first signed up with us."

"I'm afraid I do not know," Hyogo sighed dramatically. "His past has been a closely guarded secret. He did not speak of it even to me or to Nose Band Guy."

After heaving two more sorrowful sighs, the black-haired samurai had a sudden stroke of inspiration. "Tell you what, since there's no one else to do it, let's give Mono-Eye Dude a proper funeral! He once told me that he would prefer a cremation! We can bring his cremated remains back here, set up a spirit plaque for Nose Band Guy, and hold a service here for both of them. Everybody should attend!"

"Are you sure the morgue will release his corpse to us?" Tessai sounded doubtful. "We're not his relatives…"

In a gesture of confident defiance, Hyogo clapped his hand to his sword hilt. "I am the divinely-chosen possessor of the legendary sword Umehime! No one will dare to argue with me! Besides, my war exploits are known throughout the Empire. There is likely not one human in our continent's population of 922 million who has not heard of me. The people in the morgue will be so awestruck at the sight of me that they won't even say anything, except maybe request an autograph!"

Uneasy creases formed on Tessai's forehead, but he trailed after Hyogo without open protest. The striking black-haired warrior was already marching out of the palace gates with the lofty determination of one who had found his true purpose in life for the afternoon.

Their excursion to the city morgue proved rather uneventful, to Tessai's relief. Hyogo did not have to draw his sword; neither did anyone ask for the famous samurai's autograph. The morgue supervisor, already aware that Mono-Eye Dude and Nose Band Guy were part of Ukyo's notorious quasi-official personal forces, did not want to risk offending their cohorts. Having recognized Tessai from the blond samurai's earlier visit with Ukyo, Hook and Kyuuzou, the supervisor simply asked Tessai to sign a form for the release of Mono-Eye Dude's remains. An attendant wheeled the casket to the waiting samurai, and Hyogo ordered the morgue receptionist to call for a large-capacity iron-ox taxicab.

"Contact the classiest crematorium in Kougakyo once we get back to the palace," Hyogo instructed Tessai during the cab ride. "Tell them we want an appointment tomorrow, no 'ifs' and 'buts'. If they have to bump someone else off the list, it's their problem."

Hyogo's fellow passenger was silent through all this talk. Tessai did not even respond to Hyogo's speech with the socially expected stream of "uh huhs", "sures" and "that's rights" that should have politely acknowledged the speaker's words at appropriately attentive intervals, but Ayamaro's bodyguard, caught up in the sound of his own voice, did not quite notice the lapse in common courtesy on the part of his listener.

"Hyogo seems to have forgotten that I take orders from Ukyo and not from him," The short, broad man thought. But making funerary arrangements was something Tessai was quite willing to do, not out of obedience to Hyogo, but out of a sense of obligation to his former subordinates.

"And call Mushin Temple! We need a priest to pray at the cremation." Hyogo's strident, rapid speech continued. "Once we collect Mono-Eye Dude's ashes, we'll need a priest to offer prayers at the funeral service too! Get someone high-ranking in the Event Planning Department to set up the service – the sooner the better! Make sure we get the biggest conference room. Everyone should attend! We need event posters printed on silk paper, and white flower wreaths at least 3 feet across, and…"

"Why doesn't Lady Hyogo make the arrangements himself, if he cares so much for his friends?" The blond wondered. "More importantly, I think we may be abusing our privilege as retainers, given the schedule and scale of the proceedings that Hyogo is proposing. To demand a high-ranking event planner, and at such short notice! The Event Planning Department probably have their hands full with the Envoy's visit. We'll be lucky if they can spare a junior staff member to help with the memorial service."

Tessai sighed inaudibly, continuing his anxious train of thought. "Governor Ayamaro has so far been quite generous in giving the servants and retainers leeway to arrange their own morale events using palace facilities and resources. But Hyogo does not appear to understand the difference between a privilege that we are granted and an entitlement that we are owed. If we draw undue attention to ourselves with a widely-advertised, resource-intensive funeral during the Envoy's visit, it will reflect badly on the reputation of Gozen-sama… first, by showing the Envoy that Ayamaro's servants do not know their place; secondly, by presenting the Imperial Envoy with the inauspicious specter of death, and thirdly, by highlighting the failure of Ukyo's forces in dealing with the ronin threat…"

But knowing how much Hyogo hated to have his judgment questioned and his mistakes pointed out, Tessai did not speak his mind. Instead, he chose his words carefully.

"Hyogo-dono, I am moved by your dedication to the memory of my two subordinates. I am willing to assist you, but I need clearance from the prince before I can offer my time. The loss of two key members of my team has been a great blow. I am currently quite occupied with redistributing the duties of the deceased among my other subordinates, and with keeping an eye on the prince."

Hyogo pouted his painted lips. Ayamaro's bodyguard knew that Ukyo was unlikely to lend Tessai's time to anyone.

"I'll make the arrangements for the cremation," Tessai said, "but as for the memorial service, I do not know if I can do as excellent a job as what you are capable of…"

"Leave it to me then!" Hyogo took the ego-saving opportunity offered by Tessai. "Everyone knows that I am the Queen of style and taste…"

"No, I did not know that," The literal-minded Tessai mentally commented rather absently, before turning his eyes to Kougakyo's desert landscape flashing by outside the cab window.

The stocky blond was relieved to see the Governor's palace loom up before them. Now he could escape Hyogo's monologues, or so the weary warrior hoped.

The two samurai had only just unloaded the casket at the palace's employee entrance when Hook, returning from his spying mission, came trotting up behind them.

Tessai and Hyogo turned to greet Hook's smirking face. After some low words were exchanged between the three, Hyogo threw his head back in triumphant glee.

"Hahaha! That pathetic Kyuuzou failed! Heeheehee!" The samurai's beautiful shiny black hair bounced about his shoulders as he laughed.

Fortunately for his audience, Hyogo's next thoughts went unspoken. "That's what happens when you try to steal the limelight from meeee----! That's what happens to people who don't know their place! No lady or lady-like is meant to upstage Queen Hyogo! That's the law of the universe! Now that Kyuuzou has failed, the way is open for me to show my awesome abilities!"

Tessai stared at the bizarre sight of Hyogo laughing merrily beside the casket containing Mono-Eye Dude's remains. Then, suddenly conscious that his jaw had become slack and his pipe was about to fall from his mouth, the stodgily-built man brought his lips back together, straightening his face into its usual stoic expression. "Young Master will not be pleased with this news."

"What are you worried about? Tell Young Master that I will succeed where Kyuuzou has failed!" Hyogo's glasses glinted in the light of the afternoon sun. The long-haired bodyguard had regained his composure, but despite himself, the hint of a grin still lingered around his decoratively-blackened mouth.

"Come, let's make preparations for the funeral service of our dear friends," The androgynous samurai stated, walking into the palace ahead of Tessai and Hook. Exchanging glances, Hook and Tessai picked up the casket and followed.

--

**Notes:**

The figure of 922 million (for the human population of the imaginary continent on an alien planet on which this fic is based) is directly lifted from the wikipedia entry on Africa, the world's second most populous continent with a population of 922 million in 2005. (or so says wiki)

**Inspirations:**

Hyogo's use of "lady and ladylike" in reference to biological women and "third gender people" (biological males who are social females) was borrowed from the Filipino movie "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros", in which an audience of biological girls and young MTF cross-dressers was addressed as "ladies and ladylike" (or at least that's how I remember it)

Hyogo's self-praising attitude was inspired by a modern writer's interpretation of St Francis of Assisi's _The Rules_. Said writer commented on how we humans boast about what we know, what he have accomplished etc, striving hard to be esteemed by others, but our actions and true motivations don't measure up to our lofty words. I usually have limited interest in religious writings, but the book in question was an unsolicited 'loan' left in my possession by an acquaintance who 'disappeared' and could not be contacted for the book's return. Out of respect for her 'effort' and good intentions in lending me a book in which I didn't express an interest, I made what I considered a reciprocal effort to read it. Whether I enjoy the subject, feel affinity for the individual who 'lent' it to me, or agree with every human being who practices her faith (which I don't) is beside the point. But even if I may disagree with the book's writer on other things, I have to acknowledge that he made a good point on this one.


	10. Kanbei's Yearning

**Synopsis: **Following the duel with Kyuuzou, Kanbei decides on a new samurai-recruitment strategy. Meanwhile, Kyuuzou returns to the Governor's Palace empty-handed. And Hyogo swears revenge on Kanbei and Gorobei for killing his beloved friends.

--

Upon their return to Masamune's workshop, the farmers and samurai exchanged news on the number of interviews accomplished, of which there were many, and the number of interested candidates, of which there were none.

"So it seems that today's search was a failure," The disappointment in Rikichi's voice was audible.

Gorobei glanced towards their leader. Despite the fact that Kanbei's expression was grave, Katayama could sense Shimada was, oddly enough, in a lighter mood compared to the rest of the team. The heavy fog of dull disillusionment that hovered over Kanbei when Gorobei first met him seemed to have lifted a little. Katayama detected a new kind of almost-happy energy radiating from Shimada, even with the poor news of the day and the grueling duel with a deadly foe.

Gorobei could make a remote guess as to the reason why.

"This is interesting," his lips quirked.

"We'll continue looking for more samurai tomorrow," Shimada was now addressing the team. "This time, we will try a different interview method. We will still go out in teams, but instead of accosting our target as a team, only one team member at a time should approach the candidate. A one-on-one conversation may be more persuasive."

Inching closer to Kanbei, Gorobei asked, "What about **that** samurai?"

Kanbei raised his fingers to his neck, his fingers lightly grazing the spot where Kyuuzou's sword had cut him. His own words echoed in his mind. "A one-on-one conversation may be more persuasive."

Could the mysterious samurai in red be persuaded in a private conversation? Kanbei had his doubts as to whether Kyuuzou would easily change her mind, but he wanted to speak with her alone. He did not know what he could say to convince her to join him, but the ronin still desired to see the lady in red again. This strange new yearning, strong and persistent, was a sharp change from the dull disinterest with which he went about his day-to-day living ever since the war and his career ended.

--

Passing under the ornate front gates of the Governor's palace, Kyuuzou dutifully made her way to the Magisterial Department. Although Governor Ayamaro was officially the Chief Magistrate, the actual administrative and judicial work of the Magisterial Department had been delegated to a number of assistant magistrates. One of these assistant magistrates, a certain Seishiro, had been given oversight of the "suspicious ronin-recruitment activity" case, and it was to this official that Kyuuzou would make report of her mission.

This was the first time since she started working for the Governor that the warrior woman had to acknowledge an aborted assignment. Kyuuzou was displeased. She wanted to finish what she began simply for her own satisfaction, even if no one else held her accountable.

Chief Magistrate had been nervous about Kirara's samurai even before Ukyo's complaint against them. Lately, there had been a spate of robberies committed by desperate ronin against the more vulnerable members of the merchant class. Ayamaro conjectured that peasants recruiting samurai to fight, regardless of the reason, would eventually cause more unrest.

But mere conjecture was not enough to convince Kyuuzou of the peasants' guilt. There was nothing in the legal code of the Empire that prohibited subjects from organizing to defend themselves from criminals.

More serious though was another charge in the case file: "Two samurai in the peasants' ronin band murdered two city law enforcement officers who had been sent to question them. Those two ronin are a public danger and should be terminated as soon as possible. Any of their cohorts who offer any resistance should also be eliminated."

Kyuuzou knew that at least part of this report was untrue. Nose Band Guy and Mono Eye Dude were certainly not hired in the capacity of law enforcement officers. They were Ukyo's henchmen, with no official authority to make arrests or question Ayamaro's subjects.

Despite her doubts about this case, the scarlet samurai still felt obligated to carry out her assigned duty, partly because she accepted that Kanbei and his companion most likely did indeed murder Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude, and partly because she wanted the excitement and challenge of meeting a worthy opponent.

The woman did not quite understand why she walked away from Kanbei without completing what she went there to do. There was a tacit agreement that they would duel again, but by granting her quarry a reprieve, Kyuuzou had acted as if this was a private matter concerning only herself and Kanbei rather than a duty that she, as a retainer, owed to Gozen-sama.

This was not how the samurai woman commonly conducted herself.

"It's all his fault!" Kyuuzou's thoughts turned to Kanbei. That mysterious man had somehow confused her, such that the usually clear-headed scarlet warrior did not even know her own mind at this point.

After walking briskly into Seishiro's office, the slender warrior wrote "Mission Incomplete" on her status report, with the excuse of "the arrival of innocent onlookers made continuation of the attack on the ronin a potential danger to public safety."

Assistant Magistrate Seishiro did not seem too concerned about her report. The pale-haired woman had the feeling that this official, like herself, did not presently see the peasants' activities as a serious threat to the security of Kougakyo. Seishiro had other priorities that he considered more pressing, such as removing the individual ronin who were reported to have robbed store owners and itinerant peddlers in the city. As far as he knew, Kirara's ronin band did not fall into this category.

When Kyuuzou emerged from the building, she found a gloating Hyogo waiting for her in the wide stone courtyard of the magisterial department.

"That wound on your neck must really hurt!" The bespectacled bodyguard grinned broadly at her. "A samurai who can place a mark on Sir Kyuuzou must be quite something. I think I'll go have myself some fun."

Kyuuzou stood still, but did not otherwise acknowledge her colleague's words. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hyogo coolly sashay through the doors of the Magisterial Department. The slender bodyguard guessed too rightly that Hyogo had already used news of her apparent failure to persuade Ayamaro to transfer the warrant for eliminating the ronin to him. At that thought, the glint in the woman's crimson eyes grew cold and hard.

She could not tolerate the thought of anyone other than herself touching Kanbei. She alone should finish what she had started.

But just as quickly, Kyuuzou's anger faded. The ghost of a smile crossed the woman's face as she strode out of the courtyard. From what she had seen of the tall dark ronin's fighting prowess, it was highly unlikely that the outcome would be one to Hyogo's liking.

--

Assistant Magistrate Seishiro glanced up at the pale-skinned samurai who stood waiting in the recessed entryway of his office. Arms crossed, Hyogo was tapping his foot impatiently. Clearly, Sir Hyogo had no time to take a seat, although the samurai had been politely invited to do so.

"Very well, since this is what Governor Ayamaro ordered, I will transfer the warrant for the ronin-and-peasant case to you," Assistant Magistrate Seishiro removed Kyuuzou's name from the "Enforcement personnel" section of the case file and typed in "Kurata Hyogo" instead.

"I need five Yakans from the armored police as backup," Hyogo said.

The assistant magistrate felt a slight irritation at Hyogo's imperious tone. The armored police were currently occupied with arresting various ronin known to have committed robbery-related murders and assaults. Asking for 5 Yakans to chase down one Shimada Kanbei did not seem to be a good use of resources. Indeed Kanbei and his cohorts killed two members of Ukyo's shadow forces. But having heard of the reputation of Ukyo's goons, Seishiro guessed that Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude probably initiated the aggression and brought their fate upon themselves. The Assistant Magistrate was the opinion that Kanbei's band would probably not commit any more murders if they were left alone, but Seishiro understood that his will was subject to Ayamaro's orders.

"Do you really need _that_ many Yakans?" Seishiro glanced at Hyogo. "Did Gozen-sama ask you to take five Yakans with you?"

Actually, Ayamaro had mentioned nothing about Yakans. But Hyogo said stubbornly, "I need the Yakans' reconnaissance abilities to efficiently locate that specific ronin band. My time is too precious to waste wandering around the city looking for those scum. I like to get right down to my job."

"The armored police are very busy with intercepting violent armed robbers right now." Seishiro replied. "I'm not sure if they can spare any personnel for this case."

"**I** am going out to fight REBELS!" Hyogo snapped. "And you're whining about robbers?!! Get your priorities right!"

"Rebels, eh?" Seishiro's voice, in Hyogo's perception, did not sound too convinced. This angered Hyogo even more.

"He's not taking me seriously!" The samurai thought. His lips twisted into a snarl as his hand moved to his sword hilt in one gracefully threatening gesture.

Seishiro raised his eyebrows, but to Hyogo's disappointment, this low-born bureaucrat, whom the samurai knew was the offspring of bottom feeders in the merchant class, did not shrink from the intimidating warrior spirit radiating from the person of Hyogo, most famous and flamboyant of heroes during the Great War. How could Seishiro not sense his innate nobility and respond to him with multiple articulations of "O Honorable Hyogo," "Sir Hyogo" and "O Honorable Samurai" and an appropriately cringing attitude?

Has the age of warriors truly come to an end, like Ayamaro said?!! The thought distressed Kurata Hyogo deeply.

"I will submit a request for personnel to the captain of the armored police." The assistant magistrate's tone sounded oddly amused to Hyogo's sensitized ears. "As to when you will get the Yakans, and how many units he can actually lend you, we will have to wait for the captain's answer."

Hyogo suddenly missed Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude even more than ever. He badly needed an agreeable audience to whom he could complain about "what a fool this Seishiro fellow is!"

Seishiro was a moron who couldn't recognize Hyogo's inborn loftiness and treat him accordingly. And if that armored police captain, another low-born fellow, didn't see fit to give Honorable Hyogo special honor, he too would deserve the label of 'fool'! Oh how Hyogo wished his two friends were still around so that he could rant with them.

"Oh Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude! I curse the two evil ronin who took you from me!" Hyogo swore inwardly, stomping out of Seishiro's office. "I will have my revenge on them!"

--

**News:**

- If you're an OC hater, don't worry :-) Seishiro is not intended to be an important or regular character. He only exists to reveal Hyogo's inner workings. OCs will be reused in this fic only if they are useful as plot devices or serve to show something about the canon charas.

--

**Inspirations**

Seishiro's lack of fear of Hyogo was inspired by a university professor's web article on the clichés and inaccuracies in The Last Samurai. He pointed out that the commoners' attitude of near-worship for samurai, as depicted in the film, was inaccurate for that era - people had stopped treating individual samurai like daimyo lords a long time ago.

--

**Notes:**

Per Hyogo's obsession with his own "nobility", does this mean Hyogo is a noble?

I'm no expert on the classification of nobles in Japan so don't take my word for it ;-) But according to Ratti/Westbrook's non-fictional book Secrets of the Samurai, as well as various web articles, the vast majority of samurai were not nobles (the samurai, as a class, had its roots in the peasantry). Even most of the provincial lords (heads of the leading families of the samurai clans) of the Civil War era were not considered nobles (the samurai were in the category of _shi_ or gentry).

Some powerful warrior families claimed descent from ancient noble houses, but Ratti/Westbrook say of such samurai houses' claims to nobility: "These claims, however, must be studied critically in view of the fact that any new center of power usually tries to link itself to the tradition of the older, supplanted power in order to justify, reinforce, and consolidate its position. The strong reaction of the court to the new leaders, who were often spitefully referred to in imperial decrees as being 'people of all ranks,' indicates that in most cases we can presume the claimed relationship to have been non-existent."

- So maybe, in this ficverse, Hyogo and his ancestors claim noble descent only to boost their image, or maybe, there is truth in their claims. Assuming Hyogo's claims are true, then Hyogo, who in this fic is a samurai with a "noble" background, is probably the exception among samurai, rather than the norm.

At any rate, I personally don't think "noble descent" is really as big a deal as some people make it out to be. In the 'real world', the Civil War era was an age in which even commoners like Hideyoshi, who was of peasant birth, could rise through the ranks of the samurai to become a daimyo (and in Hideyoshi's case, he ultimately became Regent, de-facto ruler of Japan, holding more power than even those of samurai birth). [Source: Ratti/Westbrook's 'Secrets of the Samurai' as well as various online articles]

- Western writers may have loosely equated the daimyos of medieval Japan with "nobles", but it was not until the Imperial Restoration that the daimyos as a group were officially incorporated into a new "nobility" together with the old nobles.

- Back to fiction - as to why someone so highborn and privileged as Hyogo would even have to work as a yojimbo (and for a merchant at that), maybe we'll get around to explaining that in later chapters ;-)

_**Ayamaro's administration's attitude towards the rest of the merchant class**_

The merchant class included small business owners, and by was no means comprised only of wealthy tycoons like Ayamaro. [Source: various non-fiction articles/books in print and online, including Ratti/Westbrook's non-fictional book about the samurai.] In this AoaA ficverse, Ayamaro also wants to protect small businesses like the one owned by the couple whose infant was held hostage by the ronin. Ayamaro's interest in defending the weaker members of the merchant class comes not so much out of a sense of justice but because he recognizes that it is these hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop stores that, by their sheer numbers, create most of the employment opportunities and tax revenue for Kougakyo.

_**My concept of some of the assistant magistrates under Ayamaro**_

In this ficverse, Seishiro and some other employees of Ayamaro are probably people who would do the right thing if their own safety and economic survival was not under threat, but if pressured by Ayamaro or Ukyo to push a certain case a certain way, they would go with the flow.


	11. A Warrior's Empathy

**Synopsis:** Night brings strange thoughts to human hearts. Hyogo dreams of revenge against his enemies, while Kyuuzou tries to make sense of her own reactions to Kanbei.

--

Night came. Neither Kirara's band nor those who hunted them slept well, though the places they slept in could not be any more different.

After being attacked twice over the course of two days, Kirara's band was in a heightened state of vigilance. Kanbei and Gorobei shared sentry duty during the night. The other members of the band had volunteered to join the watch rotation so that the two old samurai could get more sleep, but Kanbei did not trust that any of them could detect the approach of a skilled intruder until it was too late.

So it fell to Kanbei and Gorobei to take turns staying awake while their companions rested in an uneasy slumber on the hard, un-matted floor of Masamune's workshop.

At 3am, Gorobei rose to take over Kanbei's watch.

"Please take a rest now, Sir Kanbei," Katayama made his way over to Shimada, who sat in watchful silence next to the entrance of Masamune's workshop.

"Thank you you, Sir Gorobei," The dark-haired samurai whispered to his friend, careful not to rouse the sleepers. "I suspect that Ayamaro's forces may attack us again soon. Kirara and Katsushiro, if left to roam the streets by themselves, will not be able to fend off an assault. I will fold them into my team starting tomorrow. You can team up with Rikichi as before."

"Understood," Gorobei answered in a low voice. He cast a glance at the two young people, each asleep at opposite ends of the room. "Maybe I can take Katsushiro into my team so as to ease the burden on Kanbei-dono."

The other ronin smiled. "I appreciate Gorobei-dono's kind offer, but I think Katsushiro is best motivated to work when he is on the same team with Kirara. And I feel I have a duty to personally protect the maiden, since she took a risk by putting her trust in me. So, Katsunoji belongs with her, on my team."

"Young love," Gorobei grinned. "It is always interesting to watch it unfold."

The two middle-aged men shared a moment of quiet laughter. Once, they too were as young as Katsushiro, unquestioningly open to life and to love, but those days were long gone. Gorobei could remember those times like it was yesterday, but Kanbei could barely remember. The young lad he had once been was now a complete stranger.

"But one is never too old to fall in love," Gorobei suddenly said with a cryptic smile. "Is it not so?"

The only answer from the other samurai was an equally cryptic smile.

--

Hyogo, still stewing in resentment over the perceived disrespect from Seishiro, went to bed nursing thoughts of revenge – revenge against Seishiro, whose face he happily slapped repeatedly in his dreams, and revenge against Kanbei and Gorobei, whose faces he had never seen. All he knew of their appearance was what Hook told him. Two tall, dark-skinned men, one with long dark wavy hair, the other with short, silver hair. Judging by their complexion, the two ronin probably came from the West or the North of the Empire. They should be easy to spot in Kougakyo. In his dreams, he tracked them through the streets of desert city, but never could find them.

The samurai woke up after a full night of rest between his favorite embroidered floral silk sheets. But strangely, Kurata Hyogo still felt tired and irritated.

--

After Kyuuzou lost her warrant for eliminating Kanbei to Hyogo, the woman warrior was transferred back to guarding Ayamaro. The lord, despite a poor mood brought on by the pressures of the envoy's visit, did not rebuke her directly for her failure. He simply gave a bitter sigh and remarked in an irritated tone. "The ronin problem is proving more stubborn than I expected. I hope Hyogo can finish this troublesome business without bringing too much attention to himself. I would rather not have the Envoy hear any more of this matter."

Kyuuzou bowed her head. She knew she should feel grateful for the governor's seeming magnanimity towards her failure – there were certainly far more vicious and unreasonable lords who subjected retainers to worse consequences than just an unpleasant tone of voice. But at the same time, she resented the fact that Hyogo had been given what was once hers – the right to challenge Kanbei.

Ayamaro, having no engagements for the night, retired early.

After ensuring that his lordship's rooms were secure, Kyuuzou and a lower-ranking palace guard took their posts outside the Governor's bedchamber. The guardsman, familiar with Kyuuzou's taciturn reputation, did not attempt conversation.

Kyuuzou could hear the lord tossing and turning in his bed. Ayamaro was not sleeping well, if he was sleeping at all. It had been whispered around the palace that the visiting Envoy Kagemitsu was the sort who would take bribes from a city governor and still bring an unfavorable report of the unfortunate governor back to court. Ayamaro had no reliable way of staying on Kagemitsu's right side.

Another pair of palace guards came to relieve Kyuuzou and her fellow guard of their shift an hour before midnight. The woman returned to her rooms to rest, but when she lay her head down on her box pillow and closed her eyes, she found her mind turning to the events of the last afternoon.

"Why did I let that man go free?" Kyuuzou asked herself. "Why? I always finish what I start. What made this case different?"

Breathing deeply to clear her mind, she waited for insight. A slow realization came upon her: ironically, it was because she herself was obsessed with completing any task she started, no matter how big or how small, that she could feel a strange empathy for Kanbei.

The man asked her for a reprieve so that he could finish something. She could understand the drive of one who was determined to complete a task that he had set his heart on.

"But is that reason enough to turn from the assignment that was given to me?"

Kyuuzou did not think so. Then a teasing inner voice whispered. "You had no other choice. You couldn't have defeated him even if you wanted to... It was not that you did not _want_ to finish your job. You simply did not have the ability to finish it."

That thought was not new to her mind; she felt a sharp anger at its return. But she simply acknowledged that she was angry, and focused her mind on why. Pride, ego – flaws common to all humans, but more pronounced in some. Those were easy reasons to see.

And Kanbei, with his annoyingly knowing brown eyes, had probably already seen them in her and manipulated them to his advantage.

When the ronin suavely alluded her superiority in skill and asked her to let him go, Kyuuzou had looked upon him with amused scorn. They both knew that he had no need to beg for her mercy. Though haughty, Kyuuzou was not one to allow her arrogance to color her assessment of her own abilities. Much as she hated to admit it, Kanbei's fighting skills were in some ways superior to hers, and she knew that he was the one who had spared her life earlier in the duel. But the man chose to pretend to be the loser. Why? Was he condescending to save face for her?

The idea both offended and flattered the woman. Turning on her side in bed, she wrapped her arms around her torso and descended into sleep with the face of the handsome dark man drifting in and out of her mind.

--

At the first light of dawn, Kirara and Rikichi quietly rose to prepare breakfast for the watchful Gorobei and their still-sleeping companions. The farmers had nothing to put in the pot except the rice they brought from the village, but no one had complained about this rather limited and unbalanced diet. It tasted better than the grass-and-millet gruel (which lately had more grass than millet in it) that was the common fare in their village. The headman said a traveling physician once told him that millet had higher protein content than rice. The doctor believed the supposedly inferior gruel they consumed in times of rice shortage was nutritionally superior to rice. But none of the villagers took the word of the headman seriously, not because they doubted the elder's character, but because some of the farmers didn't even know what the word 'protein' meant. And perhaps the headman just made up the story about the doctor so that the villagers would feel better about what they had to eat, now that the bandits had taken their good rice.

Because rice was what the wealthier people ate, it must be the best grain, or so they thought.

"Today, we will split into two teams for our samurai search," Kanbei announced after breakfast. "Gorobei and Rikichi in one team, and the rest of us in the second team."

Katsushiro and Kirara, puzzled by the change, exchanged uneasy glances, silently wondering. "We worked in three teams the day before. Why are we reorganized into only two teams now? This doesn't seem efficient."

But Kirara did not challenge the old samurai's decision.

"Honorable Kanbei must have his reasons," she thought, casting her trusting eyes on the tall dark man.

--

Assistant Magistrate Seishiro arrived at work on time, just as he did on most mornings. But this day, he found Hyogo waiting outside his office, arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

"Where are my Yakans?" The samurai did not bother with the greetings and formalized small talk that customarily preceded a business discussion between social equals.

"I haven't heard back from the captain of Armored Police yet." Seishiro sat down on the steps leading up to his raised workspace, taking his own sweet time in removing his shoes. "I sent his office a personnel request right after you left yesterday. It was already pretty late in the day by then. He might not have had the chance to review our request. He'll probably give my office an answer by the end of today."

"By the end of today? Incompetence!" Hyogo glared haughtily down at the seated bureaucrat.

"If it's really that urgent, perhaps Hyogo-dono can approach Captain Toshi directly," Seishiro said in the detachedly helpful tone of one who was doing his job, nothing more.

"YES! It's THAT urgent!" Hyogo, annoyed at what he thought was the nonchalant attitude of the judicial official, spun on his heel and left, making a mental note to make a bad report of Seishiro before Ayamaro when the opportunity presented itself.

Without a second look at the departing samurai, Seishiro took his seat at his work desk and opened the new case files that his secretary had printed out for his review. There were murders, drug trafficking, aggravated assaults and child kidnappings – the whole gamut. It was going to be a long day at work.

--

Watching yet another wandering warrior refuse Kirara's request, Kanbei sighed. It seems that his new "one-on-one" interview strategy was not working any better than the "two-on-one" method they used yesterday. Kirara, Katsushiro, and everyone else in his party took turns approaching samurai on the street, but each request was turned down.

Shimada wondered if Katayama and Rikichi were having better luck.

But when the two men met with the main group to exchange status reports at midday, Kanbei came to know that Rikichi and Gorobei had not gained any new recruits either.

"Say," Gorobei suggested. "I can venture into the rougher parts of town for the rest of the afternoon. The districts of the "untouchables", maybe? The kind of ronin who chooses to roam that manner of environment might be of a different mind than those we have met so far. Who knows? I might have some luck there."

Kanbei considered the idea. He nodded. "Very well, please go ahead."

Turning to Rikichi, Gorobei said. "You can choose to come with me, or you can stay with Kanbei's team. I enjoy your company, but I won't take offense if you follow Kanbei for the rest of today."

The samurai's tone was amiable and understanding. Rikichi hesitated. He liked being teamed with Gorobei, but the farmer was not keen on entering the "outcast" districts inhabited by "untouchables" whose occupations involved contact with blood and corpses. These people of the class of "much filth" were perpetually in a ritually unclean state.

"I think I'll follow Kanbei for the rest of today," The farmer, half-embarrassed, responded in an apologetic voice.

"See you in the evening," Katayama waved goodbye to the group. Then the tall ronin began making his way alone towards the lower levels of the city.

"Good luck," Kanbei silently wished his friend success. "I hope you find what we have been seeking."

--

"Only two Yakans?" Hyogo exclaimed disappointedly at the Captain Toshi of the armored police.

The captain was not too pleased at having his morning troop training session interrupted by Hyogo's unannounced visit to the police officers' training courtyard. But since the Honorable Kurata Hyogo was the bodyguard of Governor Ayamaro, the policeman had to give the samurai some "face."

"Yakan operators Takemaru and Kunichiyo will be waiting for you outside Garage 2 at 8am tomorrow." Toshi bowed slightly.

Hyogo noticed that the bow wasn't quite low enough, and that Toshi had made no attempt to defend his decision. Either Toshi was being deliberately rude, or he was simply being what he was – a boorish commoner with no proper training in etiquette, or so Hyogo thought.

"Whatever the case, this so-called police captain is still a cad", the samurai mentally commented.

"Tomorrow?" Hyogo queried the man. "Don't you have anything available sooner?"

"I'm afraid not," answered the armored police captain. "I did not have the chance to review Assistant Magistrate Seishiro's request until you brought it to my attention. I have given your personnel loan a high priority, but even so, it takes some time to rearrange the duty rosters of our Yakan operators so as to free up two men for your use. Tomorrow is the best we can do."

"I've heard of this Toshi fellow," Hyogo thought. "He was not born a samurai. He was a peasant who got drafted into the ranks of the foot soldiers during the war – mind you, a conscript, _not_ a volunteer. Somehow, this fellow gained command of a squad, and later got promoted to 'squire' status, only to get laid off by his clan when the clan surrendered. The most he did during the war was lead a Yakan squad. But after he came into Ayamaro's service he was made a company commander. That only happened because Toshi had no competition. Eight years ago, he was about the only one in Ayamaro's service who knew how to pilot a Yakan. Now he acts like he's a big deal, which he is NOT."

Toshi could not read Hyogo's thoughts, but the man of lower birth was perceptive enough to say, "I'm very sorry for the delay, Hyogo-dono. Please let us know if we can help you in any other way."

In other words, Toshi was not changing his mind. But along with his apology, he gave a deeper bow to Hyogo.

"Does he not know, I want the Yakans, and I want them NOW?!!! He sees fit to make me wait, and for such a stupid reason," Hyogo thought scornfully. "He's not a warrior, he's more like a paper-pushing bureaucrat. And he probably isn't even qualified to be that. I'll bet that former peasant is only semi-literate, or more likely, worse than that."

But there was little that Hyogo could do about the situation.

"8am is too late," The queenly samurai told Toshi in a curt tone. "Tell your Yakan operators to be ready by 6:30am tomorrow."

"As you wish, Sir Hyogo," the captain bowed.

--

**News:**

- This fic might have to move into the M-rating in the next chapter or the one after that. When that happens, it won't appear any more under 's default K-T filter. Be sure to look for it under the M filter going forward ;-) Or more conveniently, just put an alert on the story if you're interested.

**Inspirations:**

The millet vs rice issue came from 7 Samurai, in which the peasants ate millet while saving the rice for the samurai. But the film scholar in the video commentary remarked that millet didn't necessarily taste worse than rice like the characters claimed. It was only the social association of rice with wealth and millet with poverty that made people of the era see millet as "horrible" food.

**Notes:**

Seishiro and the other minor OCs in Ayamaro's employ are all of commoner birth, so they do not have surnames. In this ficverse, Kyuuzou doesn't have a surname either. But Hyogo has the surname of Kurata.

- Lower samurai (kachi) are sometimes translated as 'squires' and higher samurai (kyunin) as "knights". As for whether foot soldiers (ashigaru) were considered 'samurai', I think it probably depended on the time period. According to Ratti/Westbrook's Secrets of the Samurai, the ashigaru, a "mixed" group that included both people born into the samurai clan as well as commoner conscripts or volunteers during the Civil War era, eventually came to be fully identified with the samurai class.

- In samurai movies such as _When the Last Sword is Drawn_ and _Gohatto_, other samurai characters apparently regarded people born into the ashigaru rank, or even lower ranks, as "samurai".

But I'm no expert on the topic, so don't take my word for it ;-)


	12. A Dream of Desire

**Inspiration and dedication: **The Kan/Kyuu scene in this chapter is inspired by a piece of Kan/f-Kyuu erotic art done by morgankit. This chapter is a gift to her.

**Synopsis: **Gorobei introduces the third samurai – a boyish-looking young woman, but it is not the androgynous female of Kanbei's desire. Meanwhile, Kyuuzou's thoughts turn increasingly to Kanbei, in spite of herself.

**Characters: **Kanbei, Gorobei, Kirara, Rikichi, Heihachi, Kyuzo

**Warning:** Mrating (Kan x f-Kyuu), gender change (female Heihachi)

**Notes:**

- Chapter dialog does not conform to canon.

- In this ficverse, Kyuuzou and Heihachi are from culturally similar ethnic groups. They both have the custom of women soldiers taking on a masculine alias in their military life. (Inspired by Yotoden, in which the female ninja Ayame, who was NOT disguised as a man, introduced herself to ninjas of other clans by the masculine name Ayanosuke.)

* * *

After another fruitless afternoon prowling the city for samurai, Kanbei finally led his followers back to the Artisans' Quarter.

"I hope Gorobei had better luck than we did," said Shimada to himself.

As it turned out, Katayama had already returned to Masamune's place ahead of the main group. When Kirara's band approached the smith's workshop, they saw Gorobei standing in the doorway waiting for them. The samurai looked very pleased indeed.

"I have good news for you," Gorobei greeted his friends with a smile. "We have found our third samurai. A curiously androgynous little lady. I thought she was a boy when I first saw her."

"An androgynous lady?!! Could it be Kyuuzou?" Kanbei thought, his heart skipping a beat. But when he stepped into Masamune's workshop after Gorobei, he saw that the woman standing there was not Kyuuzou. It was someone shorter, younger, plumper. Shimada felt a stab of disappointment.

"Hayashida Heihachi at your service," the tomboyish redhead bobbed a bow at the newcomers. "My given name is Hiromi, but please call me Heihachi, for that was my name during the war."

"Squire Heihachi served during the war as a mechanic." Gorobei said, "She was not involved in direct combat, but I think her technical experience will come in handy. Besides, I have faith that she can hold her own in battle against the Nobuseri. She can split wood down to toothpick width using her sword. Now I have not seen that level of control with a blade even among the commandos I served with during the war. This is clear evidence of her impressive focus and disciplined training."

"Did you two meet in the untouchables' district?" Kanbei asked.

"No, I had no luck there." Katayama answered. "But when I came back to Masamune's, this young lady was standing right outside, splitting wood with the most incredible precision I've ever seen. I thought her skills could be put to better use splitting Nobuseri, so I told her of the little adventure that we are planning on, and she has kindly agreed to join us."

"Ah, it seems that everything is up to fate," There was a hint of bitter disappointment in Kanbei's voice.

Gorobei blinked and raised his eyebrows. He was expecting Kanbei to sound a little more enthused now that they had found their third samurai.

Catching Gorobei's quizzical expression, Kanbei explained. "I mean that, we have walked the city for days, diligently seeking samurai, and all our efforts have borne no fruit. Yet today, we have gained our third samurai by pure luck, through no effort on our part."

Would it be the same with Kyuuzou? Kanbei wondered. "Will everything between us occur only at the whim of Fate? Can no amount of effort on my part change the outcome?"

Kirara, happy to meet another maiden close to her age, approached Heihachi with a smile.

"Have you eaten yet, Heihachi-dono?" The peasant asked. "Dinner will soon be served, and I hope you find the rice of Kanna to your liking."

"The rice of Kanna, I know the taste," The warrior maiden beamed. "The rice from the West is crisp and fragrant, the rice from the East is soft and bland. But Southern rice is my favorite, and Kanna rice is the queen of all Southern rice - it is fragrant and yet soft, like no other variety. I can hardly wait to eat!"

"She is a samurai who truly loves rice for what it is," Rikichi whispered approvingly to Komachi. To most other warriors, rice was merely the income by which they measured themselves against other samurai.

--

Kyuuzou had to spend yet another day guarding Ayamaro while the lord hurried about his duties and fretted about the Imperial Envoy. Although Kyuuzou's work as a bodyguard was, for the most part, what others would have considered rather boring, the scarlet warrior was in a continual state of alertness, scanning familiar surroundings for intruders and other dangers seen or unseen. By necessity, each moment had to be experienced with a fresh newness so that nothing even slightly out of the ordinary was taken for granted. Her senses of sight, sound and touch constantly engaged, the woman saw no reason to be bored. Her mind had little need to wander to more entertaining subjects.

But this day was different. Kyuuzou found her thoughts constantly drifting to what Hyogo was doing. Or rather, what Kanbei was doing. Had Hyogo already left the palace to duel Kanbei?

Each time her mind wandered, she strove to pull her attention back to her duties. Kyuuzou became more and more annoyed with herself, and with Kanbei as well. After all, he was the cause of these bizarre changes in her state of mind.

Kyuuzou contemplated seeking news of Hyogo's progress after her work shift. At first, she tried to dissuade herself from that course of action, telling herself that information on Kanbei's case was technically off-limits to her now that it was officially no longer her concern. But when the samurai's thoughts turned to how Hyogo knew the outcome of her duel even before she had made an official report to Seishiro, a quick flash of anger came into her scarlet eyes. If Hyogo presumably ousted her through the nosiness and interference of Ukyo and his lackey Hook, she had no reason to play by the rules with people who respected no rules.

After Kyuuzou's bodyguard shift ended that night, she made her way to the Magisterial Department. The building was already closed. Swiping a card key against a card reader at a side door, Kyuuzou entered silently. Ayamaro's bodyguard had the security clearance to access any of the palace buildings at any hour. However, the woman was not entirely sure if she had the clearance for what she was about to do next.

Kyuuzou headed in the direction of Seishiro's empty office, but she passed the Assistant Magistrate's door without making any attempt at entry. As far as Kyuuzou knew, Seishiro had never disrespected her as a human being, and she intended to reciprocate by according him the same honor.

Besides, there was no need for her to enter Asst. Magistrate Seishiro's office for what she needed. There was a computer terminal in the waiting area of hallway, placed at this open location so that palace retainers from other departments could catch up with their work while waiting for their appointments with the assistant magistrates. Kyuuzou sat down at this computer, which was connected to the palace's information network.

"If the Assistant Magistrate has barred me from reading his files, I will accept the limits of my privilege and refrain from further prying," the woman told herself, logging on to the terminal.

Quickly, Kyuuzou entered the case identifier for the Kanna peasants' ronin-recruitment case. The barest hint of a smile flitted across her cold face when the case file popped up on screen . So, it seemed that Seishiro had not removed her from the list of personnel authorized to access this file, either because he forgot to do so, or because he simply didn't care. Her keen red eyes scanned to the "Status" field on the case file.

"Kurata Hyogo will depart with Yakan operators Takemaru and Kunichiyo at 6:30am on the 14th day of the 8th month. Sir Hyogo has the warrant for eliminating the two murderers. Yakans will be used for reconnaissance, and for combat support against the murderers' cohorts if necessary."

It was still the 13th of the month. Hyogo had not left to duel Kanbei yet. Silently, Kyuuzou logged off the terminal and made her way back to her rooms unobserved.

After a quick bath, the disciplined female samurai ate a simple but nutritionally-balanced meal alone. Ayamaro's bodyguard could have dined on richer, finer fare from the Governor's kitchens, but the woman preferred food of her own choosing, food that did not cloud the mind during digestion or slow the body down.

Kyuuzou's everyday living choices were built around readiness for an emergency.

Deciding to go to bed earlier so that she could rise at dawn for her training session, the blond put on her sleeping yukata and lay herself down on her floor bed.

Lying between unadorned cotton sheets, Kyuuzou pondered what she would do with the information that she had gained from the case file. The female warrior was sorely tempted to trail Hyogo the next morning just to see how Kanbei would kick the cur that the city government sent after him. But she had planned to start her morning training at 6am and report for duty at 8:30am. There was no guarantee that Hyogo, who was to set out on his excursion at 6:30am, could find Kanbei in the convoluted multi-level city within two hours. In other words, she might be wasting her time.

"Should I even go out of my way for this Shimada fellow?" Somehow the idea of changing her schedule for the sake of Kanbei did not quite agree with her pride. But all the same, the desire to see how the ronin would deal with Hyogo nagged mightily at Kyuuzou.

In uncharacteristic indecisiveness, she finally fell asleep without resolving her inner debate. Kyuuzou slept on her side, as was her habit, her back set defensively against a windowless wall and her face towards the door, ready for any intruders who should choose that mode of entry.

Kyuuzou, unlike other women in the palace, never slept nude. She did not have a habit of going to bed only in her underwear, nor did the warrior allow herself the comfort of being naked under her sleeping robe. The bodyguard never knew when she might be surprised in the night by an intruder, or be roused from her bed to answer an urgent summons.

The blonde did not know how long she had been asleep before she awoke to the consciousness that she was lying in bed totally naked. Or perhaps "awoke" is not the right word. Kyuuzou was one with the consciousness to know that she was in a dream state. For us common mortals, it is often only after we wake that we realize that what we had experienced was no reality, but only a dream.

Not so with Kyuuzou. She could observe her dreams while knowing they were merely dreams. And this night, she "awoke" into the consciousness of a dreamscape with the sensation of being fully nude despite having gone to bed completely clothed.

In this dream, she sensed a presence in her room. Opening her eyes into the dream world, she saw only darkness, not even the moonlight that should be streaming in from the window at this time of the mid-moon. In the silence, the warrior heard no breath of a living human, not even her own, despite her knowledge that there was someone in the bedroom with her. Further proof that she was in a dream.

"But what kind of dream is this?" Kyuuzou asked herself the detached question.

Something slowly took shape from the dream darkness. Kyuuzou could discern a man's head and then his shoulders. She recognized the rugged, handsome face of Kanbei, saw the long dark hair cascading about his broad, muscular shoulders.

She smiled scornfully, both at herself and the dream vision. "What is he doing in my dream?"

As this dream vision of Shimada Kanbei emerged from the night, Kyuuzou saw that he too, like herself, was fully unclothed. With a slow deliberate step, he moved towards her. The woman's eyes drifted from his face to his solid chest, down to his taut muscled belly, and then lower. There she realized that her dream would not allow her to see the full details of the other warrior's physique. After all, dreams were in some ways limited by the dreamer's knowledge of the waking world. And Kyuuzou knew about as little of Shimada Kanbei as he knew of her.

She was lying in bed, on her side with her back against the wall. Perhaps because of her discomfort at her own nudity, Kyuuzou felt a slight sense of trepidation when Kanbei approached her bed, even though she knew that everything she was experiencing was just an illusion. Instinctively, she drew her legs up against her chest. It was an ambiguous gesture - was she attempting to conceal her exposed breasts from Kanbei's lecherous eyes, or was she opening her core of her femininity to the purpose of the other warrior's visit?

But even a dream Kanbei seemed to be one who shamelessly interpreted the signs in his favor. Without asking permission, he lay himself down beside her, facing her but keeping enough distance such that their bodies were not touching.

Kyuuzou could often detach from her dreams to a degree that allowed her control over the events in them. She knew that she could steer this dream in another direction, or end this illusion and force herself to wake, But somehow, this dream was different. Part of her wanted to see it take its course, wanted to see what the dream Kanbei would do.

But the dream Kanbei simply stared back at her with unreadable dark eyes, as if he too was waiting to see what she would do. She felt a flutter in the secret core of her womanhood, felt the dew on the petals of the sacred flower that opened to love.

Then all of a sudden, as if he had made up his mind for both of them, Kanbei slipped his large strong hands under her folded thighs and threw her legs over his shoulders. Simultaneously, he thrust his hips forward, connecting with her in one smooth motion.

Kyuuzou suppressed a gasp at the sudden intrusion. But as this was merely a dream, she felt no pain, just a fullness in her core that bordered teasingly on pleasure. The broad-shouldered warrior, still gripping her legs, paused for a moment, deliberately holding her gaze before he launched into an energetic rhythm. His short, clipped thrusts insistently rocked her towards the peak of pleasure.

Gripped tightly by Kanbei, pushed firmly against the wall, Kyuuzou felt trapped, without the power to change her position should she so wish. She tried shoving the man back with her legs, but those legs, held high above her head by his strong hands, were in a position of little leverage. She could use her arms to some effect, but not at their full range of motion, for her legs were in the way.

From the beginning of this dream, her defenses had, one by one, changed into vulnerabilities in the face of Kanbei's approach. How annoying that man was!

Kyuuzou felt as though the entire situation was out of her mastery; she was completely dependant upon this man's actions for the fulfillment her pleasure. But she refused to give up the fight. The woman warrior continued to push back against this dream Kanbei, trying to end his dominance of the exchange. But the tall samurai's response was to increase the pace and vigor of his ministrations.

In spite of herself, a soft moan escaped her lips. Kyuuzou, angered that her body was betraying her, closed her eyes tightly so as not to be held captive by the intense gaze in Kanbei's dark eyes. Still making an effort to push him away from her, she tried forcing herself to stop responding to his hard, persistent rhythm.

But the pleasure continued to build within her. Then just as the dream Kanbei was about to push her over the edge, the woman awoke.

She was still lying in her bed, fully clothed, her back to the wall. It took some willpower to resist the temptation to slip her hand inside her sleeping robe and confirm what she already knew – her whole body was trembling on the cusp of pleasure, suspended between frustration and release.

But there was no one in waking life to give her relief, and she was too proud to yield to Kanbei, even a dream Kanbei, by soothing her own thwarted yearnings. The woman warrior felt a rush of rage at the ronin for invading her dreams so intimately.

"I'll punish him for this when I catch up with him," Kyuuzou half-jokingly told herself. But as to how she would punish him, she had not quite decided.

--

**Notes:**

On our planet, high-ranking samurai were "paid" in land, which was rated by how much rice it could yield. Lower-ranking samurai were paid in rice. (Source: Secrets of the Samurai, Ratti/Westbrook) Dunno what the custom is on S7's planet ;-)


	13. A Legend Arrives

**Synopsis:** Hyogo meets the two Yakan operators assigned to accompany him on his hunt for Kanbei and Gorobei. But will the peerless samurai's pride and pettiness alienate his allies?

--

At 6:00am on the 14th day of the 8th month, two Yakans waited for Hyogo outside Garage 2. The machine operators, policemen from the armored company, were squatting outside their robots, oiling the joints of the steel machines. Although the armored police captain told them that their appointment with Sir Hyogo was at 6:30am, the two low-ranking policemen took things one step further. The honor of working with the famed Kurata Hyogo should be taken very seriously indeed. Takemaru and Kunichiyo showed up for work an hour early to tune their Yakans and review the case file on the anti-ronin mission.

"Wow, I heard Hyogo-dono did countless great deeds during the Great War!" Takemaru, the younger of the two men, addressed his companion while spraying the Yakans' joints with grease lubricant. "Have you worked with Hyogo-dono before?"

"Once, three years back, when our city experienced a wave of department store robberies." Kunichiyo answered as he climbed into his Yakan to test the controls. "The robberies were attributed to gangsters, so the Magisterial Department ordered the police to do a citywide sweep of street gangs. Sir Hyogo officially led an operation of 5 police squads in an assault on the gang-ridden neighborhood of Ichijou. My squad took part."

"Wow, you had the great honor of fighting under Hyogo-dono's leadership?!" Takemaru gushed, putting aside the can of joint lubricant to pick up the case file folder that he brought with him. "Was he an inspirational leader?"

"Well, Hyogo-dono was nominally the commander of the operation," Kunichiyo's voice echoed from within his steel tube robot, "But in reality, Captain Toshi led the backup of 2 Yakan squads while Captain Yoshiaki led the backup of 3 footman squads. The Honorable Hyogo didn't give orders concerning squad maneuvers. He provided the one-person vanguard."

"One person vanguard?"

"Yes, Sir Hyogo insisted that he was the only warrior needed in a vanguard force; the rest of us would just slow him down cos' his skill level is like a gazillion times higher than everyone else's." Kunichiyo's voice was voided of discernable human emotion after being filtered through the metal casing of the Yakan's shell. "He made it clear that the police squads were to follow a good distance behind him, far enough back so that Sir Hyogo would definitely be the first to get a piece of the action, but not so far back that we couldn't witness the coolness of his sword fighting. He said that none of us should draw our swords before he draws his sword."

"Wow, it's so like Hyogo-dono to take on all risk on the behalf of others!" Wide-eyed Takemaru exclaimed. "So brave and so self-sacrificingly noble!"

"Well, it turned out that the rest of us didn't have to do any fighting cos' all the street punks loitering in public view had fallen under Sir Hyogo's great sword Umehime by the time we caught up with Sir Hyogo." Kunichiyo reminisced. "Hyogo-dono was that fast."

"WOW! You guys didn't have to do anything because the Honorable Hyogo did everything?!!!" said novice Takemaru, who could not see Kunichiyo grimacing inside the Yakan.

"Actually the rest of us had to do many things in the aftermath of the attack on Ichijou," Kunichiyo thought, "after Hyogo had left the stage and the curtains had closed." Kunichiyo and his fellow policemen had to search and identify all the bodies mowed down by Hyogo's supposedly divinely-sanctioned sword. It turned out that the slain 'criminals' were mostly petty crooks whose police records showed little more than pick-pocketing, shoplifting and assaults stemming from personal quarrels. Many of them didn't even have provable gang membership. A few of them were homeless people with no criminal record at all. Even the handful of known gangsters killed in the Ichijou raid were not high enough in the yakuza hierarchy to have masterminded the robberies.

The police department was stuck with the unpleasant task of justifying the summary killings. But the low class residents of Ichijou, not knowing their place, were apparently not satisfied with the official excuses. They dared to gather outside a district police station, protesting the deaths of their 'scummy friends and relatives', as some of Ayamaro's bureaucrats called the slain street punks.

In response, Governor Ayamaro resorted to the public relations stunt of calming dissent by sending well-known war hero Hyogo out to the Ichijou district police station to lecture the gathered 'outcastes' on "knowing their place." A few loud rebukes from the deservedly haughty white-faced samurai was enough to silence most of people in the suddenly-awed crowd, but not all of them. Hyogo had to take the trouble of stepping down from his high podium to push his way into the mob to slap a few low class women who had the audacity to retort in a tone that should never be used on a great ladylike samurai. Upon this display of righteous samurai indignation, the crowd gasped and was shocked into silent submission before dispersing meekly, or at least that was what Kunichiyo, who wasn't witness to the neighborhood protest, learnt from the official version of events. But the Yakan pilot, though not entirely sympathethic to the complaints of the outcastes, saw no compelling reason to accept the complete veracity of the official story either.

According to what Kunichiyo overheard from officials in the Kougakyo Government, the debacle of the Ichijou massacre wasn't so much Hyogo's fault as it was Ayamaro's. Chief Magistrate Ayamaro, panicking under pressure from the wealthy department store owners who contributed financially to his political machine, had forced the Assistant Magistrates to push forward with the 'sweep' before the investigations into who exactly were behind the robberies had been completed.

Nevertheless, Kunichiyo, feeling that it was not his place to openly criticize his superiors, did not mention the hidden side of Hyogo's publicly touted successes to police force newcomer Takemaru.

"They say Hyogo-dono's sword Umehime has very strong spiritual power," Takemaru's voice broke through Kunichiyo's less-than-pleasant recollections. "Is that true?"

"Have you met Sir Hyogo in person before?" The older policeman finally popped his head out of his Yakan to stare quizzically at his companion.

"No, I've only been working here for less than a year." The novice Yakan operator replied. "A few times, I saw Hyogo-dono from a distance. The closest view I got of Honorable Hyogo was when he was on stage giving a speech at last winter's city employee morale party. I've never spoken to him but I've heard so many cool things about him. I heard people say that other people say that Nose Band Guy and Mono Eye Dude say that Hyogo says he is the very incarnation of mercy and kindness. Hyogo-dono himself always reminds us of his unsurpassed war record whenever he gives a public speech, about how he single-handedly saved an entire province with a population of like 4 million, the province that used to be called Akito Province but which got renamed Hyogo Province in his honor. Is it not so? "

But before the other Yakan operator had a chance to respond, Takemaru caught sight of a sleek silhouette approaching them through the morning mist. As the figure came closer, the Yakan operators could discern his/her long, silky, unusually black hair cascading down straight, proud shoulders. Striking black lipstick pulled attention to an unusually white face. Searing dark eyes peered out from behind yellow-tinted glasses.

Hyogo's stately walk came to a halt at about 15 feet from where the Yakans stood. Wordlessly, the samurai appraised the two waiting Yakan pilots with a proud, critical gaze.

Instinctively, Takemaru knew that he was in the presence of greatness. But, occupied by the noble carriage and uniquely striking appearance of the new arrival, he forgot himself and did not bow until Kunichiyo's voice brought him back to reality.

"Greetings, Sir Hyogo," His companion was bowing before the samurai. "Kunichiyo of the 2nd Squad at your service."

"It's an honor to serve under you, Great Hyogo," Takemaru, scarcely believing his fortune in being able to meet the famous war veteran face-to-face, also bowed low to Hyogo. "Takemaru of the 4th Squad at your service."

--

At 6:37 am, Kurata Hyogo was marching through the streets of Kougakyo with two Yakans from the armored police as escort.

Despite being surrounded by the subtle beauty that the color of early daylight brought to even the drabbest urban structures, the androgynous samurai was in an ugly mood. In fact, he had been quite unhappy ever since his two friends were killed, and every little annoyance added to the rain cloud over his soul. Haunted by a burning desire to slay the murderers, Hyogo had not slept well the night before, nor the night before that.

On top of that, the preparations for the memorial service of Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude were not going as quickly as he wanted. Tessai failed to get an appointment with the crematorium on the 13th of the month as Hyogo had told him to do. Instead, Mono-Eye Dude was scheduled to be cremated at 11am on the present day, the 14th. Hyogo was not sure if he would finish his assignment in time to attend his friend's cremation.

"Keep your eyes peeled," the samurai instructed Yakan operators Kunichiyo and Takemaru. "Scan for two dark-skinned ronin, one with long dark wavy hair, about 6 feet 2 inches tall, and the other with short silver hair, about 6 feet 4 inches in height. Other armed members of their party may include a 9 foot tall mecha painted red and yellow, and a 15 year old boy with dark green hair worn in a ponytail. Got that? Don't make me repeat myself!"

"Yes, sir!" the two policemen answered, peering at their monitor screens while rotating the Yakans' red eyes in full circle. But there were few ronin wandering the streets of Kougakyo at 6:37am. Those with no masters to work for had little reason to rise early. Indeed, there were not too many people of any class walking about the usually crowded city at this hour. The first people whom the Yakans and Hyogo came across were 6 young men and women dressed in chain restaurant uniforms, apparently on their way to work. These youths, glancing nervously at the samurai and his metal companions, bowed quickly towards Hyogo with formulaic respect before hurrying off.

Hyogo's party walked by one or two street cleaners leisurely sweeping the streets, and were passed in turn by the occasional delivery truck. They saw 3 or 4 of down-and-out ronin sleeping on the streets. But none of them fit the description of the two murderers they sought.

After following Hyogo through rather deserted streets for 20 minutes, the novelty of being in Hyogo's unforgettably unique presence had worn off slightly. The inexperienced Takemaru's boredom at scanning the nearly empty streets overcame his slack-jawed, dumbfounded awe at Hyogo. Besides, he had heard rumors that Hyogo-dono was remarkable among samurai in being kindly tolerant of people regardless of their class origins. After all, Ayamaro's bodyguard was close friends with Nose Band Guy and Mono Eye Dude, who weren't of samurai birth.

So the young man found the courage to address the peerless Hyogo from within his Yakan. "Sir Hyogo, may I ask why we have to be out so early? There are barely any ronin around at this hour. It usually gets livelier after 7:30am."

The samurai felt a surge of annoyance within him.

"Get out of the Yakan." Hyogo, his tone crisp and cold, tapped twice on the hull of Takemaru's robot.

Obediently, the operator popped the lid and climbed out, upon which, Hyogo turned his fearsome gaze upon the unfortunate man.

"Just who is in charge here, huh? You tell me?!!"

Takemaru's brows furrowed in anxiety. The Yakan operator could tell that Hyogo was offended. But before the man of lower social status could throw in an apologetic bow or two, the samurai continued his tirade.

"Just who is the leader huh?"

Takemaru was about to say "You, Sir!" but Hyogo cut him off by slapping him twice. The samurai's two blows were not too hard, more intended to make a point than to hurt the target.

"You think you can take charge of this expedition, huh?"

Stunned by the unexpected assault of Hyogo's expensive velvet gloves on his rough, acne-scarred cheeks, the Yakan operator shook his head in confusion. He did not have the slightest desire to take charge of this outing, nor was it his intention to challenge Hyogo's authority.

"Who in the world do you think you are? Just what qualifies you to question me?!" The samurai's beautiful white teeth flashed in his strikingly expressive mouth. "Did you perform great feats of valor in the Great War? Did you slay 831 ranking warriors single-handedly? Did you, by your singular effort, save an entire province with a population of 4.2345 million? Is your name uttered in awe in every province, in every county, in every city, and on every street corner of the Empire and beyond?"

Blinking nervously, the Yakan pilot vigorously shook his head.

"No? NO?!!" The samurai's blackened lips stretched in a wide sneering smile before suddenly warping into a hysterical roar. "Then you are NOWHERE near my level and NEVER will be. So shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!!!"

Takemaru, nearly bowled over by the deafening screech of outraged pride and injured nobility, bowed as low as he could. "I'm very sorry, Hyogo-sama!"

Standing by silently, the other Yakan pilot Kunichiyo glanced furtively about their surroundings through his Yakan's 360 degree field of vision, secretly hoping that there were no passers-by to witness this scene so that Ayamaro's name would not be further shamed by his well-known bodyguard's public loss of emotional control. The Yakan operator winced to see that a few curious onlookers on the parallel street on the opposite of the canyon were gawking at them.

None of the three men noticed that 3 city levels above that parallel street stood a slender figure camouflaged in a concrete-gray cloak, partially hidden behind a pillar, looking down at them. Kunichiyo was occupied with the mortification of being associated with Hyogo's public tantrum, Takemaru was wrapped up in his own humiliation, and Hyogo was too caught up in any real or imagined threat to his ego. Even if the men had been paying cursory attention to their surroundings, it was doubtful if the distant flash of red fabric peaking from a gap in the gray cloak worn by the lone watcher a hundred feet across the canyon, 60 feet above and 40 feet behind them would have registered.

"Don't you ever DARE to question me again!" Hyogo was shouting down at the bowed Takemaru.

"Forgive me, Honorable Hyogo," Takemaru, his face red with embarrassment, answered in a tremulous voice. "I will never question you again."

Kunichiyo felt a degree of sympathy for the unfortunate Takemaru. He was also embarrassed on behalf of both his colleague and himself at having been seen in public with a 'leader' who may have mastered the sword but apparently could barely master himself.

Hyogo , looking down at the man trembling with humiliation before him, felt rather grand and powerful for having put the base creature in his place. It was a pleasant, mildly dizzying sensation. Oh, how he needed that boost given his bad mood! But still the warrior was subconsciously disappointed that the low class creature cringing before him did not break down and cry in public. For some reason Hyogo had felt a strange, unmistakable rush of delight on past occasions when he intimidated people into weeping before him. Without realizing it, Hyogo craved that high, especially when he was in a frustrated frame of mind.

As for Takemaru, the policeman did not quite understand why Hyogo was reading things the way he did. Perhaps being someone of lowlier status, he had made a mistake in asking a question that could be interpreted as forgetting his place, but a more classy rebuke from Hyogo would have been more than sufficient to bring the point home. Besides, Hyogo was technically not his commanding officer and had no official authority over him. The Yakan operators were merely on a courtesy loan to the bodyguard.

Hyogo snapped at Takemaru. "Now get back into the Yakan and do your job as you're told!"

The lowborn man climbed back into the steel-tube robot and started up the engine again. His hands still shuddered as he walked the machine after Hyogo. The policeman was reeling with the shock of realizing that maybe, just maybe, the flattering hype spun around Great Samurai Hyogo did not accurately reflect the heart of the 'real' Hyogo.

Then suddenly Takemaru realized that he was no longer trembling with humiliation. He was shaking with anger and disgust. But the steel tube robot's steady, measured steps did not betray the emotions of the operator within.

Above them, the unobserved gray shadow on the opposite side of the canyon heaved an inaudible sigh. Kyuuzou shook her head almost imperceptibly before silently following after the Yakans.

--

**Inspiration for this chapter:**

There really is a Hyogo Prefecture in Japan, from which I got the idea for putting a Hyogo Province in this alien planet ficverse ;-)

- I've wondered why the Yakans accompanying Hyogo, given their capabilities, were so unbelievably slow and inept when attacking Kirara's team. Yes, yes, I know that fantasy fiction is supposed to be full of things that don't make RL sense, but nevertheless, this chapter and the next (or the one after next) is my attempt to 'explain' that strange turn of events ;-)


	14. The Goddess of Mercy

**Synopsis:** Hyogo reveals an unexpected side of his character, but will this be enough to salvage his honor in the eyes of the Yakan pilots?

--

It was now 7am, and each Yakan pilot escorting Sir Hyogo had independently decided that the samurai was definitely leading them in the 'wrong' direction. Based on the information in the case file, Kunichiyo had assumed that they would be seeking the murderers in the Industrial Sector, where the slaying of Nose Band Guy and Mono-Eye Dude allegedly took place on the 10th of the present month. But the trio was now in the Mercantile Sector of Kougakyo. In fact, Hyogo had led the Yakans there directly after leaving the palace.

Takemaru also recalled Kyuuzou-dono's added report, dated the 11th of the month. Kyuuzou had stated that the suspects, together with their cohorts, were again encountered in the Industrial Sector. There was no evidence that the ronin band operated anywhere else.

"So why in the world is Hyogo bringing us deeper to the Mercantile Sector?" Both policemen wondered. "Shouldn't we be going to the Industrial Sector instead?

But they knew better than to question the legendary samurai. The trio walked down a street occupied by upscale department stores, descended through some streets of budget chain stores, then ventured into a district of service businesses. The streets were busier now. Passers-by turned and gawked at the striking samurai marching down the street.

Hyogo heard whispers. People must be talking about him. He could imagine the content of the city folks' hushed talk.

"Isn't that the Honorable Hyogo?"

"The GREAT Hyogo?"

"Ayamaro's bodyguard?"

"Look at that rare, truly, completely black hair! That has to be him!"

"He's never been defeated, right?"

"Did you hear what he did in the Battle of Toura?…"

"Is that true?… That's incredible skill! Amazing courage!"

"He's not married yet? How come? Anyone would die to have such a son-in-law! He'll bring great honor to any house he is associated with!"

"You poor fools, you know nothing about me and my heart," Hyogo mentally answered the imaginary comments. "I am special, meant for something different. I am looking for a handsome man, a samurai accomplished in bow, sword, spear and pen, a man who truly loves me for the special being that I am deep inside, and not for the superficial stuff like my striking beauty, or for my surpassing skill, or for my searing intellect, or my lofty samurai status."

People on the street continued to turn their awestruck eyes on him. Hyogo couldn't hear the content of all of their whispers, but he didn't need to. What else could they be saying about him besides the expected?

"They say Hyogo's sword Umehime has magic! But he never uses that magic on an ordinary mortal warrior…"

"They say he always throws himself into the thick of battle without any regard for his own safety! And when he gets into his super-samurai mode, he kills hundreds and hundreds of warriors, one after the other, without stopping. He's so totally awesome!

"And Akito Province was renamed Hyogo Province in his honor!"

"Wow…"

"Wow!

"WOW!!!"

Kurata Hyogo, second son of the leading family of the Kurata Clan, thought he had heard all this admiring talk before, whether in the courts of the daimyos of his native South, or in the humble taverns frequented by the Southern soldiers during the Great War. Of course things had to be the same in Kougakyo. Indeed, it must be the same all over the Empire, and even all over the planet, for who could not have heard of his great name and his legendary deeds? And of his unique, charismatic, compelling, unforgettable personality?

The peerless samurai didn't have to listen to what the common masses actually said to know everything of import that they had to say. As far as he was concerned, they existed only to sing his praises or otherwise serve the function of making him feel like the supreme being that he was.

Continuing his gracefully martial walk down the street, Hyogo was a little disappointed that the two Yakan pilots, whom he assumed to have overheard the city dwellers' presumably impressed talk, did not ply him with questions about his great deeds during the Great War. If they asked, the samurai intended to modestly say, "Those incredible feats weren't great deeds at all; I merely did my duty", so that the two Yakan operators, whose names he had forgotten by now, could go forth into the world and praise the humility and graciousness of Kurata Hyogo in the ears of others.

The buildings were looking more and more shabby as Hyogo led the Yakans down to the next city level in the Mercantile Sector. Not everyone was thriving in the post-Great War economy, now that the armies were no longer around to consume vast quantities of goods. Kunichiyo knew that salespeople in this part of Kougakyo could be quite aggressive – sometimes they forcibly dragged passers-by into their shops. But no one dared to bother a samurai accompanied by two Yakans.

Takemaru was not greatly familiar with this area – it was not on his regular patrol route – but he knew there was not much to see if they kept heading in their current direction. Nothing lay ahead except for the abandoned Shuna neighborhood, a victim of the postwar decline, with its closed shop-houses with boarded-up windows. The street cleaners didn't even bother with neighborhoods like Shuna because no one lived there, or at least that was what the Yakan pilot heard. Takemaru didn't think that the peasants would come to such a deserted neighborhood to find samurai.

All the same, Hyogo and his escorts entered Shuna. Kunichiyo scanned the empty streets with his Yakan's rotating red eyes. As he expected, there was not a soul in sight. But Hyogo called out in a shrill voice, "Where are you, my dears ones? It's your Aunty Hyogo!"

To the Yakan pilots' great astonishment, the neighborhood came to life at the voice of Hyogo. Children emerged from the abandoned buildings, trotted out of silent alleys, and popped out of dumpsters. The ragged, underfed street urchins, roused from their sleep, all ran towards the trio, coming to a stop before a smiling Hyogo, who with chin held high, looked down upon them with lofty compassion.

Watching the proceedings silently from the top of an abandoned building, Kyuuzou wasn't anywhere near as surprised as the Yakan pilots.

Kyuuzou's fellow bodyguard was not the kind of person who could do a good deed and keep quiet about it. Over the course of sharing guard duty with Hyogo for five years, Kyuuzou had to listen to Hyogo's self-praising monologues whenever the scion of the supposedly noble House of Kurata could stop his obsessive self-admiration long enough to bestow some tiny act of non-self-serving kindness on someone, which wasn't too often. Through Hyogo's "Am I not made of greatness?" revelations, the female war veteran had already been made aware of her colleague's sporadic visits to this city block populated by abandoned or orphaned children. The war certainly created many homeless, kinless minors.

"I could have guessed that he was coming here when he started heading east instead of going west to the Industrial Sector," the warrior woman thought. "Though I have no idea why he wishes to come to this neighborhood now, when he's supposed to be looking for Kanbei."

But Hyogo, wrapped up in his contemplation of his own kindness, remained oblivious to the distant watcher. With a maternal smile, Kurata Hyogo lowered his proud chin to look at one of the youngsters in the eye. This boy of about 14 was apparently the leader of the district's street kids. His malnourished state and filthy clothes could not hide his natural good looks.

"Hazan! You've grown taller!" the famous war hero addressed the street kid.

"All thanks to you, Honorable Hyogo!" the orphan boy, overjoyed that the samurai could remember his name, answered eagerly. "We will ever be grateful to you for giving us food last winter!"

"We're grateful, Hyogo-sama!"

"Thank you, Honorable Hyogo!"

"You're a life saver, O-samurai-sama!"

"You're the Goddess of Mercy in human form!"

A chorus of appreciation rose from the crowd of gathered children.

"This is exactly what I need!" Hyogo thought, basking in the welcome of these presumably helpless and innocent souls. "It's been such a horrible few days! I so needed something like this to make me feel better!"

Kunichiyo and Takemaru could feel Hyogo beaming with self-satisfaction. Then one of the children in the gathered crowd, a bowl-legged girl who looked about nine, suddenly spoke up. "Honorable Samurai, where were you for the last 8 months? We missed the food you bring us… I mean, we missed you, Goddess of Mercy!"

"Aunty Hyogo was busy with many important things, dear," the androgynous warrior replied in a seemingly patient tone, "But I always think about you, my dear children."

The girl, although clearly fearful of Hyogo, continued in a trembling voice. "Honorable Hyogo came here once last winter, in the 12th month of last year … when it was getting colder… and you gave us each one snack bar. We are grateful. We loved the snack bars. We saved them for emergencies. We have eaten them by now, but we even kept the wrappers in honor of you. We would love it even more if you bring more food. And couldn't you come more often, especially in winter?"

Hyogo smiled kindly, but his thoughts headed in a different direction. "Stupid little b****! How dare she question me like that? Ingrate! What a sense of entitlement, especially considering her social status and MY social status. Considering her non-existent life achievements and my overwhelming life achievements. Like I owe her anything!!!"

"We'd love to see you more often than just once in many months…" The girl pleaded.

Another child elbowed the girl, whispering a low warning in her ear. ""Noriko, shut up! You'll ruin things for everyone! Piss the samurai off and he may not come back at all!"

By now, Takemaru was sweating inside his robot, fearing that Noriko too would be subjected to a few disciplining slaps from the justifiably annoyed Hyogo. This could turn out to be an incident that the policeman would find extremely embarrassing to be associated with, even if indirectly.

Fortunately, his fears did not come to pass.

"My dear, I would love to do that, but the 35 snack bars I brought you were the last of my own food supplies." In great magnanimity, the black-haired samurai lowered himself to give an explanation to those to whom he owed no explanation. "And I couldn't buy any more food for you because I had donated all my pay to charities like memorial funds for honorable, noble samurai who died during the war."

Within their Yakans, Kunichiyo rolled his eyes and Takemaru stifled his gag reflex. Even the lowest-ranking policeman could have set aside money for 35 snack bars every month without endangering his finances, assuming that he did not splurge on non-necessities. Hyogo was paid way more than either of Kunichiyo or Takemaru, and while the high-ranking samurai was not a conspicuous consumer of luxury goods, Hyogo's frequent visits to pricey restaurants and exclusive spas were no secret in the palace.

Now Hyogo rose to his full height and spoke loudly to the children, "Look what I brought for you!"

Flipping open his expensive white jacket, the samurai revealed row upon row of snack bars in the sleek coat's numerous custom-made pockets. He began handing the snack bars out to the children one by one. "Here, line up in an orderly way! No pushing! Wait your turn! You'll all get one!"

At the end, Hyogo was still one bar short. The last child in line stood looking up expectantly at him. But the samurai had no more nutritious snack bars to bestow on the needy innocent.

"Two new children, Chuta and Taka, joined us last month," Hazan explained.

"But I'm only one bar short," said Hyogo.

"Yuji froze to death in the 2nd month of this year."

"Oh," the heavily-made-up samurai put a pained expression on his face although he retained no impression of Yuji's face, or the names and faces of most of the children for that matter. Hyogo took a deep, dramatic breath, as if taking the sorrow of this unhappy news into the very depths of his sensitive soul.

Then solemnly Hyogo declared to the children. "If I ever become lord of my own fief, I will invite all of you to come live as my serfs and work on my lands. You will have enough to eat and enough to wear, so that such a sad thing will never happen again!"

"O-samurai-sama, Heaven sent you to us!"

"Hyogo-sama, you're indeed the Goddess of Mercy!"

"May Honorable Hyogo live for a thousand years!"

"May Lady Hyogo live forever!"

Hyogo closed his eyes and bowed his head, as if to acknowledge the children's adulation and the responsibility that came with it.

When the samurai opened his stunning eyes once more, he humbly bent down to address the child standing before him, the one who did not get a snack bar. "What is your name?"

"Chuta."

"Little Chuta, know this – a samurai always keeps his word. I said that everyone of you will receive a snack bar, and I mean it." The femininely tough warrior told the boy. "I have to leave now to slay some evil villains, but after I've completed my duties, I will make sure you get your snack bar."

"Thank you, Hyogo-sama!" Chuta looked up at this beautiful, fascinating and powerful creature in wonder and gratitude.

"Farewell for now!" Hyogo turned to leave with the Yakans.

"You'll defeat those evil villains, Hyogo-sama!" Hazan shouted his encouragement after the departing figure of this unique samurai. Other children chimed in.

"Yeah, you'll kick their butts!"

"They are totally no match for you cos' you're made of awesome! You'll blow them away like straw! Totally!"

"Please tell us about your great victory when you return, O Honorable Samurai!"

--

Hyogo, glowing, strode out of Shuna neighborhood flanked by the two Yakans, unaware of Kyuuzou glowering at him from her hiding place. The woman warrior had glanced at her watch and realized that it was now 7:30am.

"Did he just spend one hour doing something totally unrelated to the mission of finding the murderers?" Kyuuzou felt her annoyance rise. "I can't find fault with Hyogo for his 'noble' act, but why today? Why at this time?"

Kyuuzou knew that some of Ayamaro's more cautious retainers took vacation time to perform volunteer work or other charitable undertakings. In a bureaucracy fraught with political rivalry and backbiting, they did not want to risk the ire of their colleagues or supervisors by spending what is regarded as official time on personal endeavors. But Hyogo apparently thought he was special, above the rules.

"Can I continue to follow Hyogo and still make it back to the palace on time for my shift at 8:30am?"

Kyuuzou decided she could probably spare fifteen more minutes trailing Hyogo, though with each passing minute, her chances of being detected by Hyogo increased. Silently, the cloaked figure rose from her rooftop hiding place and followed after the departing Yakans. Hyogo's party was now heading west.

"Perhaps we'll actually get to the Industrial Sector before I have to return to the palace," The corners of Kyuuzou's glum mouth drooped even further. "And I'll bet he'll be crowing endlessly about his Shuna charity trip when I see him later today. Joy, oh joy."

While Kyuuzou appreciated Hyogo's occasionally initiative in "doing good", she had less admiration for his habit of verbalizing his megalomaniacal thoughts. Every time Hyogo went on and on about the charitable deeds that supposedly distinguished him from everyone else, Kyuuzou could not help thinking about other retainers of Ayamaro who had in their private time done much more for the people of Kougakyo than Hyogo ever did, and yet boasted much less of their deeds, if at all.

--

Takemaru and Kunichiyo, walking behind Hyogo, noticed that they were finally heading in the direction of the Industrial Sector.

"What was that detour all about?" Takemaru frowned within his Yakan. "That crazy b****. If only those youngsters know how nasty he can get."

"So, we're finally back on track," Kunichiyo told himself with some relief. "I hope Hyogo doesn't make another side trip."

The samurai noticed that both the Yakan pilots were silent. He had not explicitly given them permission to speak, but nevertheless, he hoped that they would give an indication that they had witnessed his exceptional charity and admired him for it.

"At any rate, I didn't bring these two witnesses along for nothing! I'm sure they'll be telling others about the awesomeness of what I did! I'll be the talk of the palace by the end of tomorrow!" Hyogo concluded inwardly. But unable to keep quiet for too long, Hyogo finally addressed Takemaru. "Didn't you say something earlier about the streets getting livelier after 7:30 am?"

"Yes, Honorable Samurai," the Yakan pilot answered in as neutral a tone as possible, hoping that Hyogo would not fly into a rage once more.

"Well, what is the time now?" Hyogo smiled.

"7:35, Sir!"

"You understand now?" The samurai nodded proudly at the Yakan. "Of course I knew that the city gets livelier after 7:30. I had it all figured out. So I started out from the palace at 6:30 so that we could go to Shuna first and then get out of there with perfect timing. Now double your attention and look for those two killers! We'll scan the streets for them while we keep moving west. I'm sure we'll find them sooner or later."

"Yes, Sir!" Takemaru answered promptly.

Hyogo waited for the Yakan pilot to praise him for his almsgiving, but Takemaru did not say anything more. After a moment of silence, Hyogo spoke again.

"You!" the samurai pointed at Kunichiyo, "Monitor all the streets above our level on the opposite wall of the canyon!"

"And you!" He barked at Takemaru, "Monitor our parallel street on the opposite side and all streets below it. We'll cross to the opposite side every time we get to a bridge."

"Yes, Hyogo-dono!" The Yakan operators continued their westward walk, scrutinizing the pedestrians through the Yakan's expanded cone of vision.

--

It was now 7:45am.

Hyogo's team had barely reached the boundary between the Mercantile Sector and the Industrial Sector. On the opposite side of the narrow canyon, two blocks behind them and two city levels above, Kyuuzou followed at a distance from which Hyogo would not be able to detect the _ki_ of a normal human being.

Still no Kanbei in sight.

The time had come for the woman to decide whether to go on or turn back. Her bodyguard shift was starting at 8:30.

"I should return to the palace now," Kyuuzou told herself. Another part of her pulled towards staying on the trail of Hyogo. "But I can travel from the Industrial Sector to the palace within half an hour, so theoretically I have 15 more minutes."

Confronted with this inner debate, the disciplined samurai told herself to stick with her original decision. So far, the blonde had suppressed her _ki_ level, moving at the pace of an ordinary human. Kyuuzou could increase her running speed and jumping distance by releasing more _ki,_ but a surge in the warrior's energy aura would alert Hyogo to her presence_._ If she remained in the Industrial Sector until 8:00am, she could only make it to the palace on time by using _ki_ to boost her traveling speed. That energy signature would be detected by Hyogo.

Casting a last annoyed glance at the femininely elegant samurai and his two Yakans, the slender bodyguard turned and left, her concealing gray cloak swirling about her heels. With every step Kyuuzou took in the direction of the palace, a keen disappointment tugged at her, challenging her resolve.

From the start, the rational Kyuuzou considered the possibility that Hyogo may not locate Kanbei before she had to return to the palace. But she had not considered the possibility of Hyogo acting in a seemingly irrational manner. The woman was not expecting her colleague to make this one hour detour to the Mercantile District. Now she blamed Hyogo's personal side trip for the fact that she, on this present day, had seen no sign of Kanbei so far.

"Why did Hyogo make this long excursion that has nothing to do with his assignment?" The woman wondered. "So he set out to do his good deed, but couldn't he do this another day instead of dragging Kunichiyo and Takemaru along to Shuna District, wasting their time? And he wasted my time too. Not to mention his own time! Time that could have been spent looking for Shimada Kanbei. Trailing Hyogo this morning has been a complete waste of my time!"

Quickening her pace when she got closer to Ayamaro's palace, Kyuuzou glanced at her watch. The bodyguard was still keeping up with her self-set schedule, but she preferred being a little early to being even a little late.

Kyuuzou found her mind wandering to Hyogo's progress, or the lack of it rather, despite telling herself that speculations were useless. Theoretically, the warrior could understand that even if Hyogo had simply done his job as expected without taking a detour to Shuna, there was absolutely no guarantee that the Yakans would find Kanbei in the convoluted city by a time convenient to her. Kyuuzou could probably have reconciled herself to that situation. After all, the universe did not revolve around her.

"But that was not what happened today!" The red-clad samurai pouted, her anger and frustration dogging every step she took towards the gaudily grand palace at the end of the road. "It's all Hyogo's fault!"

How could she find out more about the elusive Kanbei and his duel with Hyogo, assuming that the duel will even occur on the present day? Kyuuzou had no clear idea at the moment. Something told Kyuuzou that she could not trust the report that Hyogo would make to Ayamaro.

She knew that she had no reliable method of obtaining accurate news on Kanbei's case. Kyuuzou, staunchly solitary, proudly invested in the merit of her own abilities, had never built a strong network of personal connections within the Kougakyo bureaucracy, unlike some of Ayamaro's more politically-savvy retainers who took the trouble to establish numerous informal channels for information and political favors.

Nevertheless, observant Kyuuzou often gained 'secret' information that would have been valued by others, simply because she kept her mouth shut and her ears and eyes open. But at the end of the day, that was a passive way of intelligence gathering. Never before had Kyuuzou so badly desired the benefits of a network of informants, not until now.

Crossing the concrete bridge that led back to the Governor's Palace, the pale-haired woman shook her head as if to clear away unwanted thoughts.

--

**Notes:**

**_Hyogo's 'special' hair color_**

In this ficverse, Kougakyo is a multiethnic city with a slight majority of light-haired people from the Eastern Sector of the Empire. (I noticed that there were lots of blonds in the anime – Ayamaro, Hook, Kyuuzou, Shichiroji, Mono Eye Dude etc, hence my theory that blonds are very common in the S7 world.)

Hyogo, being from the Southern Sector (of my ficverse) where dark hair dominates, would be considered a minority as far as Kougakyo's hair color distribution is concerned. Hence the idea for people's obsession with Hyogo's jet black hair.

Even in the South, with a majority of dark haired people, Hyogo's jet black hair color would have been special. In RL, most so-called black-haired people really have dark brown hair. In East Asia and South Asia, truly black hair was traditionally prized, or at least that's what I've been told. (Cos' when people were malnourished or had to work in the sun, their hair got lighter. So jet black hair was read as a sign of a more privileged life.) I have a South Asian acquaintance who would praise his daughter's jet black hair.

Pre-modern writings from China and Japan (such as Saikaku's Great Mirror of Male Love) also attest to pure black hair as one of the attributes of a beautiful person (of either gender).

**Inspirations:**

**_Hyogo's identification with the Goddess of Mercy_**

Religious references in this fic are NOT intended to accurately reflect RL religions, though it should be said that the Goddess of Mercy is the English name for Guanyin Pusa (Chinese) or Kannon Bosatsu (Japanese), aka the Boddhisatva of Compassion, originally Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit. The original Indian version of Avalokiteshvara was male, but Chinese and Japanese representations of the Boddhisatva came to have both male and female forms. In modern times, veneration of the female representation is more widespread in China.

There had been many historical instances of people in power equating themselves with divinity, such as god-kings in Egypt, Benin, and other parts of the world. In Qing Dynasty China, the Emperor (or Empress Dowager acting as regent) was called "Old Buddha." In Japan, some historical figures have been regarded as incarnations of Kannon, such as the Indian monk Bodhidharma (who brought Mahayana Buddhism to China), and Prince Shotoku (a Japanese prince who was regarded as pro-Buddhist).

As for whether Hyogo even deserves to be compared with a goddess, well, readers can decide for themselves ;-)

**_Ayamaro's 'conscientious' bureaucrats_**

The part about Ayamaro's retainers taking care to do charity work on personal time, not on work time, came from a local news story about some elected officials performing volunteer work in the community. The newscaster took care to state that the volunteer work was NOT being done on work time. The officials in the news took personal leave to perform volunteer work. Now I don't claim to be for or against these particular officials, and past allegations of their influence-peddling or other ethical violations may or may not be true, given the nature of politics. But the point is, even assuming that an official's motivations are imperfect and his/her record is not squeaky clean, s/he took care to avoid the appearance of using work time for personal activities.

Importing this into the S7 ficverse, even assuming that Ayamaro's bureaucrats are corrupt, it is still not OOC for them to at least keep up the appearance of abiding by the rules, the motivation not being personal morality but rather a desire to avoid giving political opponents any ammunition.

**Disclaimer:** I make no warranties as to the accuracy of any of the information presented above. Readers should do their own research.


	15. A Strange Proposal

**Warning: **politically incorrect language ;-)

**Synopsis:** Ayamaro reveals a bizarre plan to Kyuuzou. Meanwhile, will Kanbei and Gorobei's cautiousness throw their pursuers off their track? Can Hyogo, having lost the respect of his followers, still trust the Yakans pursue their quarry wholeheartedly?

--

At the first light of morning, Kirara and Rikichi rose to cook rice for their companions. Except for Gorobei, who was on sentry duty near the door of Masamune's workshop, all the samurai were still asleep. Heihachi awoke first at the scent of the rice. Crawling over to Kirara's cooking pot, the samurai maiden asked courteously, "Do you need any help?"

"Oh, no, please don't trouble yourself, Honorable Samurai," Kirara gave the redhead a kind smile. "Please rest. Your breakfast will be ready soon."

"Just help us by eating," Rikichi added.

Grinning, Heihachi replied. "That I can do."

After a few moments of staring at the boiling pot, Heihachi said to Kirara, "So… what's my job for today? Do I join you on the samurai hunt, or is there some other work for me?"

"Ah…," The priestess instinctively turned her eyes towards Kanbei who, propped against a nearby wall, was apparently still in a calm slumber. "I suppose that's for Kanbei-sama to decide…"

Old Shimada was not asleep as he seemed. Without opening his eyes, the ronin answered. "Heihachi-dono will join us on our samurai hunt."

"Sounds good to me," Heihachi nodded amiably.

Kanbei opened his eyes. "Gorobei and I discussed today's arrangements last night. We will split into two teams as before, one team led by Gorobei, and the other by me. Heihachi will come with me. Komachi will join Gorobei's team. The rest of you will be on my team."

"I'm going to use the 'Have pity on the poor child!' recruiting tactic today," said Gorobei. "And who better to arouse sympathy from passing samurai than an adorable youngster? But it only works if she's not accompanied by a crowd of adults."

"I understand," Kirara nodded. "I will let Komachi know."

Nobody spoke of what Masamune had already warned them about – Ayamaro's forces must be hunting them. After Kyuuzou's attack, Kanbei rearranged the composition of the samurai search teams. First, three teams became two. Yesterday, they even changed team configurations in the middle of the day, moving Rikichi from Gorobei's team into Kanbei's team at midday. And today Komachi would switch teams. No two days were quite the same, as far as how Kanbei and Gorobei worked. Their routes changed, their team sizes changed, their team memberships changed.

The two oldest samurai always gave some practical reason for shifting team members around, but Kirara suspected that the two experienced warriors' real motives for constantly swapping team members were first, to avoid giving Ayamaro's agents a fixed target that was easier to identify, and second, to balance the burden of protecting the most defenseless group members between the two fighters with the highest skill.

"The most defenseless ones – that has to be us three peasants," Kirara sighed inwardly. The maiden did not enjoy being a burden to others, but she felt that there was no other way out of her people's suffering. Whether she liked it or not, she had to shamelessly impose on the samurai's kindness and courage, at least for the foreseeable future.

"But one day, I hope to repay the samurai for their help," Kirara told herself. "Kanbei-sama in particular."

By now, all the samurai had risen. Rikichi politely invited them to partake of their humble rice-only breakfast. The samurai ate, seated in a circle on the cold floor of Masamune's workshop. Then Kanbei addressed them.

"Let's confine our efforts to Blocks 135-165 for today. Gorobei's team will go to the bottom level of the city and work their way up, while my team will go to the top level and work our way down. We'll meet again at block 165 of the middle level at 5pm."

--

When Kyuuzou showed up for her 8:30 shift, Ayamaro was already seated at his office desk, preparing for his last meeting with the Envoy.

The bodyguard took her post in the governor's office, her face looking glummer than usual, but Ayamaro did not notice the change in her. The fat man had enough troubles of his own. Pushing aside the tray containing his half-eaten breakfast, Ayamaro continued to read obsessively through the talking points that his secretary had written for him, switching his attention between the paper he held in his hand and the multiple printed reports spread across his desk.

Kyuuzou saw Ayamaro wipe the sweat from his brow. The Governor of Kougakyo would meet with the Imperial Envoy at 9am. This was the last scheduled conference during the envoy's visit and the most important one. The envoy Kagemitsu planned to leave for the capital this evening. If Ayamaro could not resolve any issues to the envoy's satisfaction before the day was up, the Governor would be in trouble. He may lose funding from the Imperial Government, or worse, lose his post.

"Did I bribe that Kagetmitsu fellow enough?" Ayamaro asked himself.

Without looking directly at Kyuuzou, he started chatting with the bodyguard. "I really hope Hyogo can return with a positive report on his anti-ronin mission before the Imperial Envoy leaves this evening. And I hope that drama queen doesn't go into overkill mode and make things worse than they already are. If Hyogo could just wrap this up nicely and quietly, I can at least have something good to report to the envoy Kagemitsu. The envoy seems to be satisfied with the tribute we have offered to His Majesty the Emperor, but that whole thing with the ronin running wild, committing robberies and murders in the city – the Imperial Government is going to think I don't have the situation under control."

"Hoping that the megalomaniacal diva would just do his job quietly without drawing unnecessary attention to himself is wishful thinking," Kyuuzou mentally answered. "You of all people should know better."

Normally, Ayamaro kept a social distance from Kyuuzou and Hyogo. In his opinion, bodyguards were meant to be seen and not heard, and in some situations, not even seen at all, discreetly hidden behind screens while the governor met with important visitors. Ayamaro did not treat his bodyguards like friends; he rarely even had cause to look them in the eye. Hyogo would sometimes initiate casual conversation with the lord when Ayamaro was in a good mood, or when the effeminate samurai wanted to wheedle favors out of the governor. Kyuuzou, on the other hand, never chatted with Ayamaro. On his part, the lord of Kougakyo did not converse with her about matters outside the boundaries of her duties.

But today, Gozen was acting differently. He was actually talking to Kyuuzou about his work, not hers. While the governor looked through his papers, he poured out his troubles to the quiet bodyguard. "It's not like our police haven't been trying to protect businesses, but there are only so many of them, and the recent influx of unemployed samurai is just too much for them to handle… Then you have peasants coming to recruit samurai for whatever reason – what will we have next? Vigilantism? A rebellion?"

The bodyguard had made no outward response but her employer ranted on. "That illiterate rabble of malcontent peasants and jobless, savage samurai whose only reaction when they don't get what they want is to fight and kill – that's the worst combination. The criminal ronin are now robbing the small merchants blind, not that the samurai clans haven't been robbing merchant corporations during the Great War, forcing us to give them low-interest loans and then driving up inflation with their ridiculous consumption, reducing the worth of their debt..."

"Well, if you don't have the resources to maintain public security, you can't blame ordinary people for taking their safety into their own hands, regardless of the causes of the unrest." The woman mentally commented. "And I don't suppose your description of 'savage samurai' applies to me, or to Hyogo? …Or to Kanbei?"

Almost immediately, Kyuuzou chided herself for letting her thoughts drift to the tall dark ronin once more. Ayamaro, as if on cue, mentioned the very man she was thinking of.

"My biggest concern right now is the two ronin who killed Mono Eye Dude and Nose Band Guy. Mono Eye Dude and Nose Band Guy were the best of Tessai's fighters. They should not be easily defeated. We are facing an uncommon foe. If Hyogo doesn't get rid of this problem, I don't know what I'd do. Letting those two samurai go unpunished for killing two of our men is an embarrassment. Once the news gets out, no one will fear us again."

Silence was the only response from Ayamaro's sole listener. Undoubtedly, Kyuuzou's reputation in the palace would similarly suffer if the news of her failure to cut down a ronin got out. Ukyo's spy Hook, although unprincipled in general, would not dare to spread gossip about her among Ukyo's goons, not of his own accord at least. But Kyuuzou felt it was possible that Ukyo might use the knowledge of her 'failure' to slay Kanbei as blackmail to manipulate her into fighting on his behalf in the future. The woman's countenance hardened at that thought. She had no wish to be a lackey of that bratty young man.

"In case Hyogo doesn't succeed," Ayamaro continued pouring out his woes before his captive audience. "The envoy fellow suggested we should hire the former 13th Squadron to get rid of the ronin problem!"

Kyuuzou realized that Ayamaro was acutely stressed out, hence his uncharacteristic need to unload his troubles on the nearest person who could be trusted to listen and keep secrets. She had not seen the city governor behave so nervously since the Ichijou debacle 3 years back. "This is a bad sign," the red-clad lady thought. "Gozen does not make the best judgments under stress."

By now she felt a little sorry for Ayamaro, so she decided to make a polite attempt to assure him that she was listening. In truth, she was also curious about the next card that Ayamaro might play against Kanbei.

"Gozen-sama, was the Imperial Envoy speaking of the 13th Squadron of the former Confederated Army?" The woman broke her silence. "I believe all of the Confederated Army was dissolved after the Great War ended."

During the war, Kyuuzou had fought as part of the Confederated Army loyal to the Emperor. Comprised of samurai drawn from various states, the Confederated Army was a temporary entity that the Imperial Court dissolved once it had served its purpose. There should be no Confederated Army units left, at least not officially.

"According to the envoy, the 13th Squadron was a Red Spider unit that did not disband after the Great War, even after receiving official notice to do so," Ayamaro looked Kyuuzou in the eye, a rare occurrence. "After the war, the Red Spider commander of that squadron started operating as an independent mercenary, even recruiting former enemies from among the Raidens. The envoy Kagemitsu says that they move in the desert to the south of here and their reach extends to the mountains beyond the desert."

Kyuuzou had heard of such bands of mecha before. Unable to re-integrate into human society after the war, but cut off from the old command structure of the armies they had once served, they clung to their mobile bases. Gathering more of their kind, even former enemies, the mecha turned to mercenary work. But mercenary work was in short supply in peace time, so they also engaged in banditry. The 13th was not the only such squadron. By now Kyuuzou suspected that the 13th Squadron was the Nobuseri that Kirara's village wanted to fight.

"I've already told Tessai to look into contacting that mecha mercenary unit, just in case Hyogo's mission flops." Ayamaro declared. "Ukyo threw a fit about it though, said that he didn't want us dealing with mecha samurai. Anyway, Tessai should be researching the mecha samurai option as we speak."

"How does the Imperial Envoy know so much about a rogue army unit that no longer reports to the Imperial Government?" The warrior woman pondered Ayamaro's information. "More importantly, if the 13th Squadron is continuing its existence in defiance of the Imperial Government, why would Kagemitsu propose that Gozen hire them to fight Kanbei's ronin? Is the envoy trying to entrap Ayamaro? And if Ayamaro actually hires the Nobuseri, how would Kanbei respond to this threat?"

Kyuuzou felt strangely anxious but she did not voice her questions.

"Gozen", a white-clad guardsman interrupted, knocking on the door. "It's time for your meeting with the Envoy."

Sighing heavily, Ayamaro rose from his desk and proceeded to the meeting room, with the silent Kyuuzou walking close behind him.

--

Prowling the streets of Kougakyo, Kurata Hyogo was in a horrible mood. He realized by now that he would miss Mono-Eye Dude's cremation.

It was now 10:53am, 7 minutes before the scheduled time for Mono-Eye Dude's appointment at the crematorium, and Hyogo had yet to encounter the two murderous ronin. The Yakans periodically moved from one side of the canyon to the other, making sure that they were covering all angles. But they had not given any indication of seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"I really wanted to say goodbye to my good friend," the bespectacled samurai sulked. "It's all those wicked ronins' fault! Why can't they just show up on time and let me kill them?"

Suspecting that the mecha policemen were not paying as much attention as they should, Hyogo barked a sharp reminder at the Yakan pilots Kunichiyo and Takemaru:

"Look for two dark-skinned men, one with short silver hair, about 6'4" in height, last seen dressed in a green coat; the other with long, wavy dark hair, about 6'2" tall, last seen dressed in a white robe! Other members of the party include a 9 foot tall red and yellow mecha, and a 5'6" lad with dark green hair."

"Yes, Sir!" The two mecha operators replied. In truth, Takemaru had caught a glimpse of a tall ronin in white 5 minutes before. This tall dark man was walking 700 feet west of them, two city levels above. While this fellow could fit the description of one of the murderers, he was NOT accompanied by a 6'4" dark-skinned man with silver hair. Never mind that the white-clad man was in the company of a 9 foot tall red and yellow mecha, a frumpy redhead of indeterminate gender, and a lad with dark green hair, all of them bearing swords. There was no short-haired 6'4" tall male dressed in a green coat with them. Instead, there were two people wearing blue tagging along with the four samurai. These two people were a short female and a young man who was slightly taller than average.

"Technically, this party does not fully fit the description that Sir Hyogo provided," Takemaru told himself, "So I will not trouble the Honorable Samurai about it. Certainly there are many tall white-clad men running around Kougakyo."

At any rate, that party had by now disappeared from view, probably gone into a side street or gone up or down a stairway to another city level.

Noon passed, and Hyogo gave no sign of wanting to take a break. The Yakan operators were by now hungry and thirsty; they had not touched food or water for more than 6 hours. But they did not dare to challenge Sir Hyogo's authority by asking him for a lunch break. Kunichiyo had heard enough of gossip about Hyogo to know that the samurai's response to such a wimpy request, if he did not go ballistic like he did early, would most likely be to tell them about the time during the Great War when the legendary Kurata Hyogo, having gone 5 days without food and water, still succeeded in scaling a steep castle wall ahead of everyone else and lopping off the enemy commander's head, single-handedly winning the battle on behalf of all the inferior samurai who couldn't keep pace with his awesomeness. The great samurai would undoubtedly also lecture them about how untested, undisciplined creatures like them hadn't seen anything yet, and how they knew nothing about what it meant to be a true samurai, etc.

"I sure could do with a restroom break too!" Takemaru said to himself. "I wonder why that okama doesn't need to pee. But of course, I forget he's an immortal legend. He doesn't get STDs from sleeping around or need to eat regularly like the rest of us."

But it seemed that Hyogo too was mortal. When the trio reached a teahouse named "The Monkey's Flower," Hyogo stopped.

"Wait here!" He barked at the Yakans. "Keep scanning for those ronin!"

The elegant samurai entered the teahouse, welcomed by attentive waiters bowing low before him.

The moment Hyogo was out of sight, Kunichiyo said to Takemaru, "Hey, do you need to take a leak? I'll cover your scanning area for you."

"Are you kidding?" The younger Yakan pilot asked. "If I go AWOL there's no telling what punishment Sir Hyogo will give!"

"That fellow has probably gone to pee himself. You may not get another chance."

"What about you?"

"Just go! Don't waste time arguing."

Takemaru popped the lid of his machine, jumped out, and ran into a side alley. A few moments later, he was back.

"Thank you so much," he said to Kunichiyo. In his fear of Hyogo returning before he came back, the younger policeman had broken city laws by urinating in a location where he shouldn't have been urinating. Then again, Takemaru never considered himself to be a man of strong conscience. Many of Kougakyo's other law enforcement officers weren't exactly law-abiding types either.

"Now you cover for me!" Kunichiyo leaped out of his steel tube robot and darted off.

Fortunately for the two policemen of the armored company, Hyogo had not reappeared by the time Kunichiyo relieved himself and returned to his Yakan.

"If Hyogo-dono stays away longer, we might be able to buy ourselves some street food and maybe some water," Kunichiyo suggested. "Do you see any vendor nearby?"

"I don't think we should push our luck further," Takemaru answered cautiously.

It turned out that his choice was right. Before another 5 minutes passed, Hyogo emerged from 'The Monkey's Flower'.

"Do you need to use the restroom?" The scowling samurai asked the Yakans.

A nervous silence was the answer. "Is this a trick question?" The two policemen wondered. Finally Kunichiyo replied from within his robot, "Thank you Hyogo-dono, we're fine for now."

Without another word, Hyogo continued his march down the street. The steel tube robots trailed after him, continuing their search for the ronin band.

--

**Notes and Disclaimers:**

The lord-retainer relationship of Ayamaro and Kyuuzou (or Hyogo) is NOT intended to accurately represent lord-retainer social dynamics in any real life culture. So Ayamaro's way of relating to his bodyguards is based on my imagination. I do however wish to avoid stereotypical samurai portrayals.

I do not know whether the medieval merchant corporations had the same code of employer-employee behavior as samurai clans did. On one hand, Ratti/Westbrook's non-fiction book about the samurai mentioned that some values or behaviors stereotyped by outsiders or modern people as 'samurai-specific', such as unquestioning loyalty to head of family/organization, were actually practiced by commoners too. The samurai's code of conduct only reflected what was already valued by the larger society, which included peasants and merchants.

On the other hand, Shiba Ryotaro's _fictional_ Edo-period samurai tale 'Souzaburou of the Forelocks", stated that the shudo custom practiced by samurai clans was alien to the townspeople (a class including merchants), at least by the late Tokugawa setting of the story. Historically, it was not uncommon for a samurai lord to have sexual relationships with his pages or young bodyguards, a custom known as shudo. (lower ranking samurai also had shudo relationships with each other). [Source: the book "Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan", as well as various articles.]

At any rate, both Hyogo and Kyuuzou (if they are male) are too old for shudo, and maybe Ayamaro, being a merchant, isn't into shudo. But I have no idea whether merchants in general prior to the Tokugawa era (during which the shudo custom was already on the wane) also practiced shudo. (In Ihara Saikaku's Great Mirror of Male Love, it seems that people of various classes were into it) Someone better informed can probably weigh in.

At any rate, there are no such relationships between Ayamaro and his retainers in my ficverse. :-)


	16. Insult and Honor

**Note: **Dialog will deviate from canon.

**Warning:** politically-incorrect, bigoted language from Kikuchiyo. Strong language from various characters.

**Disclaimer:** characters' opinions do not reflect author's opinions. No representations made as to cultural/historical accuracy of any details in story ;-)

**Vocab: **_Sakki_ - an aura of malice, an intent to kill, literally "(an) air of (wanting to) kill" (I'm now trying to avoid using non-English words that require explanation, but in this case, typing "an aura of malice" takes way too much time ;-)

--

It was past noonday in the desert metropolis. Kanbei and his band had been wandering the streets of Kougakyo since early morning, seeking more warriors for Kanna. Shimada let Kirara and Rikichi take the lead in approaching potential candidates. The samurai hung back at a discreet distance so as not to intrude on the conversation, but stayed close enough to intervene should any of the ronin make some threatening gesture. It seemed sensible to all that the peasants should speak on the behalf of their own cause, but Kanbei had practical considerations for staying out of the interviews today. He needed to keep an eye out for potential attackers.

While Kirara and Rikichi presented their plea to a passing ronin from the northern provinces, Kanbei kept his senses tuned to the surrounding human auras, trying to sense _sakki_ among the strangers walking by.

"The red clad samurai confronted us two days ago," Kanbei silently recalled his encounter with Kyuuzou. "We walked the streets without interference yesterday, but such luck will not hold. It is only a matter of time before Ayamaro's enforcers find us again. Will the governor send the same warrior? Or will we face a different adversary this time?"

Secretly, Kanbei hoped that Kyuuzou would be sent after him once more. It was a foolish wish, he knew, seeing how lethal the female fighter was. But each time he scanned the surroundings for potential assailants, he could not help looking for that flash of red and gold in the throng of pedestrians.

"Shall we break for lunch, Sir?" Heihachi interrupted Kanbei's train of thought after the peasants concluded yet another unsuccessful samurai interview. Kanbei cast a glance at his assembled team. Kirara and Rikichi, accustomed to a life of deprivation, would not have complained about skipping a meal or two. But Kanbei suspected that Katsushiro might be used to a more pampered urban life. And Kikuchyo, with his size and make, was probably not the most fuel-efficient robot.

Between all of them, they did not have much cash to spend on street food. But the other option – returning to Masamune's workshop to cook another meal - would cut into valuable time.

"Yes, let's take a short break for a light lunch," Kanbei, after some consideration, acceded to the samurai woman's request.

--

In the governor's formal dining room, Kyuuzou watched as Ayamaro and the envoy Kagemitsu partook of a sumptuous lunch, or rather, watched as they pretended to partake of a sumptuous lunch. The food was exquisite, the courses plentiful, the service impeccable, but it was all for show. Gozen had a reputation to maintain; a less-than-extravagant meal might work against the image of prosperity that the Governor sought to project.

Ayamaro, wanting to appear well-mannered and moderate in appetite, nibbled modestly on the artfully arranged food. The Imperial Envoy kept up the appearance of eating as a courtesy, but took an inordinately long time between bites. Kyuuzou doubted if either of the two men was enjoying the lavish meal that took the kitchen servants so many hours to prepare.

Discreetly hidden behind a folding screen, the female bodyguard dutifully tuned her senses to the surroundings, seeking out any _sakki_ from potential assassins. She sensed an approaching human aura in the hallway outside, but it had no _sakki_. "Is it Hyogo returning from his mission against Kanbei?" Kyuuzou wondered, a strange anticipation running through her veins at the thought of receiving more news about the strange ronin. "Has the annoying queen been defeated? Did Kanbei win?"

But when the approaching aura came closer, she realized that it was Tessai's _ki_. A small pang of disappointment rippled through her usual professional aloofness. Moments later, the door slid open and there was Tessai, the dust of the desert still clinging to his clothes. Bowing low, he greeted the Governor and the Envoy.

"Gozen," Tessai announced. "As you requested, I have made enquiries into the possibility of contracting with the former 13th Squadron. Thanks to the information that the Honorable Envoy provided, I was able to make contact with the 13th Squadron's commander Shusai this morning. I made haste to visit their base to gain a better understanding of their operational methods. It seems that they have the capability to handle the threats that our city faces. On their part, the 13th Squadron is willing to assist with our ronin elimination drive for a reasonable fee. I have, however, not committed us to any contract, having made it clear to Shusai that this is currently only an idea under consideration."

"Well done," Ayamaro nodded. "You may leave us."

Bowing once more, Tessai retreated out of the ornate dining room.

"Governor Ayamaro, it appears that you have at least one competent subordinate," Smiling slightly, the envoy glanced in the direction of the departing Tessai.

A chagrined Ayamaro could only respond with a polite, un-heartfelt, formulaic "It is as you say."

Behind the beautifully-painted screen, Kyuuzou's expressionless face broke into a scowl.

--

It was past 3pm, and Hyogo's ire was rapidly rising. After walking the city for hours, he still had not found the two dark-skinned samurai who murdered his friends. "Those useless Yakans!" the samurai griped inwardly. "Are they really looking hard enough for the targets?"

Leaning against a pillar on the 17th level of the Industrial Sector, the peerless war hero Hyogo pretended to look cool and nonchalant while actually resting his tired feet. To divert his two followers' attention from his less-than-ideal physical state, he barked at his Yakan escorts once more. "Keep scanning! You're not going home today until you find them!"

The threat must have worked, for some minutes later, Kunichiyo exclaimed. "I see a suspicious party three levels below us and two blocks ahead of us on the opposite side of the canyon. There's a large red and yellow mecha about 9 feet tall, two short samurai about 5'6", one tall samurai about 6'2" dressed in white, and two country bumpkins dressed in red and blue."

"Is one of the country bumpkins a young adult female?" Hyogo queried.

"Affirmative," came the Yakan pilot's reply.

"Those are the people we're looking for!" cried a delighted Hyogo. "In what direction are they travelling?"

"They're coming towards us, Sir," answered Kunichiyo.

"Let's get behind them and surprise them," Hyogo declared. "We'll move 6 blocks ahead on our level before crossing over to their side of the canyon. This will put us four blocks behind them. Even a skilled samurai cannot detect the sound of Yakan engines at that distance! "

The toughly feminine samurai did a dramatic leap onto the arm of Kunichiyo's Yakan. "Into battle!" He cried valiantly. "For glory! For honor! For vengeance!"

Then, borne on the arms of Kunichiyo's metal robot, Sir Hyogo was flying down the street, his long, flowing black hair streaming behind him.

"I'm sure all the bystanders must be slack-jawed admiring my beautiful, rare black hair blowing in the wind." Hyogo preened as he soared through the polluted air of Kougakyo. "Oh, what exquisite color! What uniqueness!"

Takemaru's Yakan followed Kunichiyo's, zooming down the street before doing an abrupt left turn to fly across the canyon.

After landing on the opposite side of the canyon three levels above Kanbei's street, the two Yakans stealthily crossed to a parallel street through a side alley between two city blocks before descending to the level on which Kanbei's unsuspecting party was walking.

"You," Hyogo, still sitting on the dutifully-offered arm of Kunichiyo's Yakan, barked his orders at the pilot within. "Take me up the street, until we are three blocks ahead of that party. Then I will wait for them alone on their street. You'll stay concealed in the side street until I make my move. Your job is to back me up. NO ONE interrupts my dramatic entrance. The white-clad ronin is mine! No one else touches him! But you can have that ugly red-and-yellow robot. That's your chance at glory! Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sir Hyogo!"

"You!" Now the inspiring leader pointed at Takemaru's Yakan. "Cut across to their street and surprise the party from the back. I want you to grab the girl! Do not injure her! She's going back to the palace with us. Young Master Ukyo's orders!"

"Wha-?" A question was on the tip of Takemaru's tongue but he bit it back. NEVER question the wise, experienced Hyogo-sama, remember? Nevertheless, the Yakan pilot was confused. He thought this outing was about nailing the murderers of two of their colleagues. The case file that their captain Toshi handed them never said anything about a girl, or about Ukyo's orders for that matter.

"Well, I guess I better just do whatever Hyogo says," The pilot trotted his Yakan down the street in response to the samurai's orders. "Maybe the girl is some kind of criminal mastermind … But what's that got to do with Ukyo anyway?"

Actually, Takemaru could by now imagine how the matter connected itself with Ukyo. "Maybe this whole excursion is just an excuse to nab a maiden for Ukyo. Who knows if the charges against those samurai are true or not?"

Not that he really cared. The policeman shrugged. Who had time for scruples when it was hard enough paying the rent, being on time for taxes and putting enough food on the table? Practically all the policemen took bribes but even that "side income" was not always enough to cover both basic living costs and discretionary expenses like wine, sex workers and junk food. The hovels that passed for houses in this marvelous and yet dreadful city were always in need of repair. "Something to do with the climate and the pollution", Takemaru had heard colleagues say, not that he gave the matter much thought. What mattered was that there was a mountain of bills to pay. The Yakan operator was not about to lose his job over a matter of conscience, and he never claimed or even imagined himself to be noble-hearted at that.

--

Kanbei's band, walking along North 14th Street, had fallen into silence. Perhaps the group's lack of conversation was due to disappointment, or weariness, or both. All of the samurai they encountered today turned down their request. Even the vivacious Heihachi, so enthusiastic earlier in the day, had become subdued. Then Kanbei sensed a strange _sakki_ ahead. He looked up the street, seeking the source of this malicious energy. It took only a split second for the experienced warrior to locate it. Two blocks ahead, an androgynous black-haired samurai was leaning casually against one of the pillars holding up the street above. His body language was not yet confrontational, but there was a threat in his aura.

Kanbei could discern from the strange warrior's _ki_ that this was an above-average fighter. As if that was not trouble enough, Shimada could sense yet another hostile _ki_ in the vicinity, out of sight. This strange samurai probably had backup. If the war veteran had a choice, he would prefer to avoid a clash of swords when Kirara and Rikichi were present. But it was too late for retreat.

"Wait here," Kanbei said to his companions. "I'll go on ahead."

"Is something wrong?" Rikichi asked.

"Hey! Doesn't that fellow fit the description of the neither-male-nor-female samurai that Gorobei said he saw at Ayamaro's place?" Kikuchiyo exclaimed loudly. Even without the heightened senses of an exceptional warrior like Kanbei, the robot had by now perceived the threat ahead. "Why does that loser of a governor keep sending these gender-queer freaks after us? Send some real men, for crying out loud! Or real women for that matter!"

Hyogo's face blanched with anger behind its thick coat of white powder. The drag queen warrior would be the first to admit that he was effeminate and proud of it. It was not so much _what_ that rude robot said, but _how_ he said it that offended Kurata Hyogo, noble scion of the supposedly distinguished Kurata Clan. How dare this lowly metal creature who had not one iota of Hyogo-sama's level of sophisticated education, martial training, calligraphic skill, philosophical understanding and spiritual enlightenment speak of the greatest samurai that the universe had ever known in such a scornful manner? Did the lowborn creature not know WHO Hyogo was?

"The fool has eyes without pupils!" Hyogo, cursing under his breath, stopped lounging against the pillar to raise himself to his full stature. He was not exceptionally tall, but who could say that he was not striking and graceful to gaze upon?

Kikuchiyo's hostility towards the newcomer did not end with mere words. Eager to defend his teammates, he raised his great sword and dashed towards the feminine black-haired warrior.

However, Hyogo-sama would not stoop to cross swords with this manner of rude and undiscerning opponent. That red-and-yellow robot was not even worth killing. The holy magical sword Umehime should never be sullied by the blood of such a worthless foe.

Casually flitting pass the charging Kikuchiyo like an elegant butterfly, Hyogo dropped icy, scornful words from his stylishly blackened lips. "I have no business with mechanized samurai."

Kikuchiyo, stopping his charge a little too late, would have turned around to pursue after Hyogo once more if Kunichiyo's Yakan had not rushed out from the side alley to block his path. The two machines, each wielding its blade threateningly, faced off against each other.

Meanwhile, Hyogo, full of class and poise, strode forward to address Kanbei.

"I am Kurata Hyogo," the androgynous samurai declared haughtily, expecting the ronin's eyes to light up with awestruck recognition of his famous name.

But that did not come to pass. The annoyed samurai saw only an alert wariness in the ronin's eyes, but no sign of name recognition. Immediately, Hyogo conjured up an alternative interpretation for this unexpected turn of events. "He recognizes my great name, and he's trying to hide his fear and awe."

Sternly, Hyogo clasped his sword hilt. "I challenge you to a duel! On the 11th of this month, you and your criminal associates murdered my two friends, worthy employees of the Governor! Now prepare to die!"

"We're not criminals! Sensei did not murder anybody!" Katsushiro stepped forward to defend Kanbei's name. "If you're talking about those two mechanized fighters who attacked us three days ago, Sensei and Gorobei were only acting in self-defense!"

"SILENCE, child!" Hyogo shrieked at the boy. "I have NO time for you!"

Katsushiro shrank back, as if cowed by Hyogo's powerful voice and overwhelming authority. But in truth, his evasive maneuver was undertaken mainly to avoid being hit by the spray of spittle issuing from the beautiful bodyguard's righteously outraged mouth. The novice samurai, worrying about what kind of communicable diseases this stranger might be carrying, made a mental note to wash his face thoroughly later without getting any water into his nose, mouth or eyes, if that was possible at all.

"It is harder to defend than to attack, Katsushiro," Kanbei spoke to the lad while keeping his eyes on Hyogo. "I'll leave the defenses to you."

"Yes, Sensei," The boy placed himself in front of Kirara. Kanbei moved his hand to his sword.

Anxious Kirara, eager to avoid a violent confrontation, particularly one that seemed to have resulted from a misunderstanding, appealed to noble Hyogo. "Oh Honorable and Gracious Samurai, please listen to our side of the story. We have committed no crimes in this great city. Your two friends attacked us without cause, without identifying themselves. They did not even give us a chance to surrender nor did they tell us the reason for which they were attacking us. They fired arrows into a private residence without warning. Is that how Kougakyo's warriors should conduct themselves? The fault lies not with us. Please let us be! We wish no one any harm."

"Insolent BITCH! WHAT do you know of warriors and battles?!!" Hyogo roared righteously. "How many years have you lived, huh?!! Did you fight in the Great War, huh? Do you have the number of battle scars that I have, huh?! HUH?!! Can you even hold a sword right, bitch?!! You fool! How DARE you imply that you know anything about how warriors should conduct themselves!!! Hold your silence, you ignorant female!! I'll bitch-slap you 10,000 times for insulting the memory of my dear friends…"

As if he had forgotten about Kanbei, Hyogo fixed his black beady eyes on the shocked Kirara and took a threatening step in the maiden's direction. Katsushiro, glaring at Hyogo, drew his sword.

"ENOUGH!" Kanbei's cold, commanding voice cut through the tense atmosphere. "Hyogo, your business is with me."

--

**Inspirations:**

Ayamaro's dining scene was inspired by a TV news feature about how some dignitaries dine at state events. They use certain strategies to appear to have eaten heartily while in reality they've only eaten a few bites.


End file.
